'My transformation from a farm girl to a duchess at Belvoir Castle'

Life changed beyond recognition for her when she fell in love with the Duke of Rutland at the age of 27 having not known who he was when they first met in 1990.

The couple eventually moved into his ancestral home, Belvoir Castle, with a vast estate in desperate need of modernisation but staffed by people who wanted nothing to change.

What happened next has been described in great detail for the first time in Emma’s new book – The Accidental Duchess.

She told the Melton Times: “I wasn’t really looking to write a book but I was approached by a publisher and they thought I had a really interesting story to tell.

"I had a very good ghost writer who had also helped Victoria Beckham, Sharon Osbourne and Sherrie Blair write theirs.

“It was actually very cathartic, you have to dig deep into the past, for both the good and the bad things which have happened over the years.”

The book describes how her life changed, the very different circles she moved in as the partner and then the wife of the 11th Duke of Rutland.

“When I first got married I wasn’t a duchess,” she explained to the Melton Times.

“That didn’t come until 10 years after I got married and it was a shock.

“I suppose on a much, much smaller scale it was a little like ‘The Queen dies, long live The King’ in the sense that ‘the duke dies, long live the duke’.

“You just had to get on with it.”

As chatelaine of Belvoir Castle she plays a leading role in ensuring the stately home, which costs £1million a year to maintain, remains financially sustainable.

The transformed rose gardens have become a big tourist draw, big public events are held in the grounds, an upmarket retail yard brings in more visitors and a £350,000 adventure playground opens there later this month.

The duchess remembers the first time she ever saw it.

"I was driving from Melton Mowbray and coming through Croxton Kerrial when I turned and first saw the castle – I thought it was just beautiful,” she recalled.

She admits to have a tense relationship with staff in the castle when she first moved in, writing in the book: “We’d been installed in the house for no more than a few months when I pushed open a swing door on one of the spiral staircases and overheard a conversation between two of the staff. ‘So, have we broken her yet?’ I was devastated. They were clearly talking about me.”

The original castle on the site was first built immediately after the Norman Conquest of 1066 and it’s been rebuilt three times, with the existing structure dating back to the early 19th century.

The duchess describes various haunting episodes in the book, including hearing the ghostly sound of bagpipes playing down below.

She also recounts her children scaring movie star Hugh Grant while he was staying over one night.

"The girls began making scratching noises with their nails on his bedroom door, scuttling away before he could catch them at it. We were still in the drawing room when Hugh rushed in as white a sheet,” she writes in the book.

One of the duchess’s fondest memories came when she hosted lunch with The Queen in 1997.

“We were very honoured to have her and it was unbelievable having Her Majesty in a room in a way that she just radiated with such respect and awe and with this enormous smile – it was quite mind-blowing,” she said.

“We were devastated by her death.”

The duchess said she was also a little star struck when the cast of the royal family Netflix drama, The Crown, descended on Belvoir Castle, which doubled as Windsor Castle in the programme.

As the likes of Olivia Coleman, as Her Majesty, and Helena Bonham Carter (Princess Margaret) filmed scenes, the duchess was determined to get a good vantage point.

“I could sometimes be found dressed up as a member of the household staff, peeping at the filming from behind the curtains in one of the estate rooms,” she admitted.

Surprisingly, though, the duchess added: “I don’t watch TV so I haven’t actually watched it but I hear it is very good.”

The duchess is very open about her life in the book with some memorable recollections, including the time she scaled the castle roof in a storm to unclog a flooding gutter and when she was surprised in her nightdress one evening by a group of startled Texan tourists.

David became the duke when his father, Charles, died in January 1999.

He and Emma, who initially lived at Knipton Lodge prior to moving to the castle, have five children.

Unusually, they are no longer together but still live in different wings of the castle with their respective partners.

The duchess told the Melton Times the arrangement works well, adding: “We are the best of friends and we run the business together and everything works very smoothly.

"It’s always busy at the castle. It is a family business at the end of the day and everyone helps to make it work.”

The Accidental Duchess is published by Pan Macmillan and cost £12.99 in hardback.