My first contact with Lilliput Lane Cottages came around 15 years ago. I live in Northampton and was looking for work that I could do at home as I had a young family. Lilliput Lane were advertising for people with artistic skills who wanted to work from home, so I though, "That suits me" and so the love affair began. In no time I was spending my mornings and some evenings intricately applying colours to these wonderful miniataure cottages. It wasn't long before I caught the collecting bug and within a couple of years, my living room was dotted with these delightful Lilliput Lane models. I always chose cottages that I had painted myself. before I started painting I hadn't realised the work that gioes into making each cottage. Each Lilliput Lane cottage goes through a long and complicated production process . Most of them are based on real buildings and many of the earlier ones were modelled by the founder David Tate. Lillliput Lane was very much his baby and, although he has now retired, he still shows a great interest in the development of the Lilliput Lane 'look'. When you peer closely at the detail of the cottages, it really is quite staggering what you can discover. I had owned one cottage for over three years before I noticed a little mouse nestling beneath a window ledge at the back! Of course, over the years, I haven't just collected Lilliput lane Cottages for myself. They've made great gifts for friends and relatives and now I've even started the grandchildren off. So it looks as though the collectability of Lilliput Lane will be around for a good while yet.