Have you read When Marnie Was There? It’s the story of Anna, a solitary London orphan sent to convalesce on the north Norfolk coast who meets a kindred spirit called Marnie in the mysterious Marsh House. Published in 1967, this ghostly tale of a little girl’s loneliness   was shortlisted for the prestigious Carnegie medal and is still a much loved children’s classic. Studio Ghibli made an anime film version in 2014, on the suggestion of Hayao Miyazaki, the great animator known for his love of European landscapes. In the film the story is relocated to rural Japan, but the softs tones of Norfolk’s timeless marshland are beautifully rendered. The fictional village in the book is named Little Overton but if you wander round Burnham Overy Staithe you’ll be immersed in Marnie’s world. Author Joan G Robinson spent family holidays here, inspired by the evocative landscape of meadow and marsh where the sky is ‘grey as a pearl’. You can see the red brick Granary with its blue door, the real life Marsh House, and a black and white windmill that’s stood here for over 200 years, just like the one that haunts Marnie’s imagination – and ours.

Take time to absorb the atmosphere of Burnham Overy Staithe. Walk the coast road and River Burn, surrounded by grasslands whispering in a salt breeze, bleached by lemony winter sunshine. Barn owls glide in the early dusk where crows repeat harsh cries. Time to turn in, get cosy and rediscover a childhood classic.