My childhood dream was ...
to visit the cowboy landscapes I'd seen in films and comics. As a kid growing up in Worcestershire, I was a Westerns fanatic, but I didn't get out there until I was in my twenties.

The place I feel the biggest connection with is ...
the Rocky Mountains. I first went to research The Horse Whisperer and drove from New Mexico to Montana. I have a great visceral connection with that landscape.

I love ...
the English countryside, but it's so damn safe. Hiking in a place with things that can kill you heightens your senses.

I've just returned from....
two weeks in Kenya, walking with my daughter, a zoologist, in the Matthews Range. At first I thought every bush that twitched contained a leopard waiting to pounce. It's thrilling.

I'm never happier...
than when I'm hiking in the woods or mountains.

I'll always go back to...
Montana. The more time I spend there the more I find out and the more I stumble across new stories. There is something about the place which draws me back.

Travel is important ...
for kick-starting ideas. It doesn't matter where; it's more about being in travel mode. Everything is sensitised, your antennae are focused on discovery.

I've spent a lot of time in ...
Santa Fe and on Long Island where I've spent many lazy afternoons snooping around.

My most frightening travel experience...
was skiing in Colorado. I was alone. I fell and went skidding down the mountain. I fell into a creek with water gushing beneath me. I was lucky not to be dead, but it gave me a great idea for my book.

Holidays often ...
turn out to be useful for work. I ought to be more rigorous about how I discount them for tax.

· Nicholas Evans's new novel, The Divide, is to be published by Bantam on Thursday at £17.99