THE TOUR de France has inspired the fourth romantic comedy by Cullingworth author Lisa Firth.

Lisa, using her usual pen name of Mary Jane Baker, is launching her new ‘Love in the Dales’ series with the novel A Bicycle Made For Two.

The book is set in a fictional Yorkshire village during the 2014 Grand Départ which famously travelled through Haworth, Keighley, Silsden and Skipton.

And although set in the make-believe Egglethwaite in the ‘Calder-Aire Valley’, its locations include Druid’s Altar on the St Ives estate, Harden, and Hewenden Reservoir in Cullingworth.

Lisa said: “Several landmarks in my little patch of the West Riding have inspired locations in the book. They are likely to be instantly recognisable to those who know them.”

A Bicycle Made For Two will be being released by Mirror Books, part of publishing giant Trinity Mirror, as part of its new fiction list, and will be available as an ebook from February 1 and paperback from April 5.

The book follows Lisa’s successful novels for HarperImpulse, The Honey Trap and Meet Me at the Lighthouse.

Lisa said: “I wanted to write a story that wasn’t really about the Départ as a sporting event so much as it was about people’s response to it – that quintessentially Yorkshire character encapsulated in the yellow bikes, the dyed sheep, the knitted bunting. It was such a proud moment.”

Spotting an opportunity to drum up business for her struggling medieval theme restaurant, and as a memorial to her beloved late father, heroine Lana hatches a plan to lure the Tour route through Egglethwaite.

Lana enlists the help of a colourful cast of villagers, including pro cyclist turned bike shop owner Stewart McLean, whose offbeat ideas might just end up costing them everything.

Lisa was educated at Bingley Grammar School before studying English Literature at Durham University, graduating in 2003.

For further information, visit maryjaynebaker.co.uk, @MaryJayneBaker or facebook.com/maryjaynewrites.