David Nicholls cautions readers against attempting to visit the novel’s locations | David Nichols

David Nicholls has warned his fans not to try to visit places in his new novel. Fans of the hit Netflix adaptation of Nicholls’ One Day novel were able to visit locations in the series, such as Lewisham pizza joint Bella Roma or Charlton Lido, locations in You’re Here that were „really made”, the author said.

The novel, published last month, follows a midlife couple hiking through the Lake District, and has a disclaimer from the author, who explained that „while trying to describe nature as accurately as possible, pubs, hotels and restaurants”. Everything is completely fictional along the way”, and he has also „taken a few small liberties along the way”.

Speaking at the Hay Festival in Powys, Nicholls said that on the first night of their journey, his characters were „in a pub on the shores of a lake – no pub”.

„Don’t try and book it because it’s not really there,” he said. „They may be inspired by staying somewhere else, but they’re not real places.”

„It’s very difficult to write a novel that’s entirely 20- or 30-something dating — which is strange, because when I started my career, that’s mostly what I was writing,” says Nichols, known for writing romantic fiction like One Day and Starter for Ten.

The author has been with her partner, scripted editor Hannah Weaver, for more than 20 years and says that “not since 1997,” the modern dating world of apps “seems like such a different experience, so much more so in many ways. More direct and transparent than he had ever experienced.

“There was a random quality to meeting someone then. You went to a lot of dinner parties hoping you could sit next to someone. It’s so random and unlikely that something will happen, and now there’s an obvious and direct — for want of a better word — tools.

Not being very familiar with that world, he said, „I’m sure I’ll be able to write it sometime.” „I write about it especially well when I meet so many brilliant younger writers.”