By Aline Nassif

aline.nassif@essnmedia.co.uk

Inspiration is a meal best served in Ikea - according to a celebrated author.

Emma Darwin, who won plaudits for her first novel and is looking forward to the publication of a second, has exposed Croydon Ikea's cafe as unlikely food for literary thought.

The 44-year-old mum, who visits the cafe equipped with a "discreet" notebook, has picked up several odd conversations since her first visit in 2005.

She said: "The cafe is very big and busy. It's amazing what you hear."

A favourite was about a vacuum cleaner - which Ms Darwin used to build the character of Stephen Fairhurst from her first novel The Mathematics of Love.

According to the enterprising writer, a customer turned to her girlfriend and said: "The only worry is the vacuum cleaner.

"I can't feel the chord when it goes around my leg.

"It could trip me up and I'd never know it.

"My artificial leg, I mean."

Ms Darwin said: "Of course vacuum cleaners hadn't been invented in Wellington's day, but the woman's story gave me a vision that was slightly absurd but at the same time made me aware of the helplessness."

Another "bizarre" Ikea conversation two years ago among two female friends fed into Ms Darwin's thoughts on "physical violence and glamour of the late middle ages" for her second book A Secret Alchemy.

It went like this:

Woman A: I sent him a raw heart in a box."

Woman B: "A real one?"

Woman A :"No, a sheep's one.

"The next year I sent him raw liver, saying 'You've already got my heart, you might as well have my liver'.

"And then it got nasty."

Ms Darwin said: "Another conversation that went 'I think we had more longevity in the rowing than in the loving side of things' got me thinking about how marriages and relationships work after the initial passion dies down.

"I think that will come into my next book, which is still under wraps beyond the fact that it'll be set in the time of Queen Anne."

But not all of Ikea's moments have found a place in Ms Darwin's works.

She says she is still seeking a suitable home for the classic "Santa" conversation:

"I saw him. Three Santas sitting in the smoking cabin outside the hospital having a fag.

"You wouldn't expect it, would you, but he's quite extreme Santa.

"Yes, he's hardcore Santa".

A Secret Alchemy is out in bookshops nationwide this November.