Life on a sugar plantation in the deep south of America seems far away from the windswept landscape of Yorkshire.

But a writer who grew up in the shadow of Ilkley Moor has been inspired by both to produce a new historical novel.

Sugar Island is the latest book by Sanjida O’Connell, a former Ilkley Grammar School pupil who moved to West Yorkshire from Northern Ireland at the age of eight.

Based on the true story of Fanny Kemble, it follows a glamorous British actress who marries a New York lawyer in the mid-19th century.

Unwittingly thrown into a family of slave owners, she becomes torn between her husband and the plight of the poor, eventually running the risk of losing her own children. The novel was selected for Simon Mayo’s book club on Radio 2 this week.

O’Connell, who also presents wildlife films on TV, says she does her best thinking while walking on the moors and lists her favourite book as Wuthering Heights.

Although she now lives in Bristol, she often returns to visit her father James O’Connell, an emeritus professor of peace studies at Bradford University, and her mother, Rosemary, who taught languages at Skipton Girls’ High School.

“I spent most of my childhood on either side of the moor and used to go for long walks across it, often on my own,” she said.

“Now, whenever I go back home to visit my parents, I usually go running over the moors.

“I love the moors, they have such a bleak and savage beauty – and then are transformed in August with the heather. It has such a glorious colour and heady scent.”

Sugar Island is published by John Murray, priced £17.99.