Those that know me, know that I have a long standing love of all things pertaining to Maine. You would think that it would have waned over the years, but no. Its only gotten worse with each passing year. What people really find surprising when they discover my love for the state is, that I have never been there.

‘How can you be obsessed with somewhere you’ve never been?’ they ask. May I direct you towards the millions of fans of Tolkien’s Middle Earth for example. The Lord Of The Rings’ mythical landscape is as beloved as its characters.

The obvious difference between Maine and Middle Earth though is that it is a real place, yet has featured as the back drop to many a fantastical tale. This is half the reason I love the place.

At an influential age, I whiled away many hours with my nose in a book; Dean Koontz, Neil Gaiman, James Herbert, but my all time favourite was Stephen King. All those familiar with Mr King will know that he is a lifetime resident of Maine, and often sets his books within smalls towns in his home state, or in the neighbouring New England states such as Vermont or New Hampshire.

In later years, there seemed to be more and more TV shows that had a fantasy or supernatural element that were set in Maine; Dark Shadows, The Ghost and Mrs Muir, Kingdom Hospital, Murder She Wrote, Haven and most recently, Once Upon A Time. There have also been several episodes of Supernatural in the area.

This curious collection of weird piqued an interest in the New England area as a whole.

When I started to look into the area, there were many things that caught my eye. The architecture for one is charming, from the low broad frames of the Cape style, the turrets and towers of the Queen Anne style, and the broad sweeping roofs of the Shingle style.

The wildlife is amazing, creatures that I will never see here in the UK; bears, moose, coyotes, and even wolves. The landscapes has vast wild swathes. Beautiful vistas of mountains, lakes and forests. Acadia National Park is deemed to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. The unspoiled landscapes are preserved by the fact that, despite having a square mileage comparable with England and Scotland combined, there are only 1.5million people there. That’s like Birmingham and Sheffield combined, or a fifth of London. There is literally no bugger there.

Being someone who doesn’t exactly love crowds, this appeals to me.

Its not just the weird, or the breathtaking scenery that I love. There are other reasons I would love to visit Maine one day:

• The place is filthy with blueberries. I love blueberries. They are probably my favourite fruit.
• The climate is comparable to the UK, though a little drier, so you get the pleasant summers and winters with lots of snow. I love snow.
• Despite having Republican senators, its considered a reasonably liberal state
• Whoopie pies! Need I say more
• The accent – unless you have heard it, you cannot fully appreciate how different the Maine accent is to the rest of the US. The way they pronounce the short o’s and don’t roll their r’s is more like English English, than American English.