Mr MC is looking for a particular address in a real street in a real town. Another character is helping him to find it and he needs to say what house number it is. The house that suits the profile I want is number 24 (in the real street), but am I right to think I shouldn't use a real house number? For now I've called it number 124 (the house numbers don't go up that far in the street). Is there guidance regarding using real addresses? I don't want to pee off the people who actually live there.

I'd say that using the real number could cause a problem, so why tempt fate? The solution you've suggested, the out-of-range number, seems sensible, but is it really vital to use an actual street name, provided you've identified the real area in which it sits? That should be sufficient to give anybody who has some knowledge of the area a feel for what the street and house are like. If they don't know the area, whether it's a real name or number becomes irrelevant anyway.

Thanks Chris, maybe I'll just change the street name. At the moment the real name comes from the husband of a historical queen, and I could just change it to a late king's name or something.

Can you imagine if you used a real road and house number and you became the new Dan Brown or, goodness forbid, E L James. People would be camped outside the house!

Whether it's positive or negative, I don't know. I guess it depends on how entrepreneurial the homeowners are, but I'd stick to made up roads. How about 146 DaVinci Street or 69 Bond Age Close?

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My sense of humour unfortunately is miles ahead of my ability.

LoL Sharley!

I must say I would either do an un-real number, or make up the name of the road.

Now why didn't I think of Bond Age Close! Perfect.