About Me

Spending ten years as a journalist was an amazing experience and the four years I’ve spent writing books has been even better. I won’t pretend it’s all hard work when I get to travel the world and do brilliant things, especially now I can take my ‘office’ (laptop, husband and little boy) wherever I go. So that’s what this Blog is about – the places I’ve been, the things I’ve done and how those experiences feed into the books. I’ve always prided myself on having been everywhere I write about; for example, Daddy’s Girls features Mustique, Megeve and Manhattan, and was written in Port Isaac, Cornwall (which is in the opening scene of Gold Diggers). This Blog will hopefully give a bit more insight/detail into what those places and were like and to maybe give you a sneak peek into who and what might be in the next one!

Wednesday, 4 August 2010

Cap Ferrat 2



















Pool and sea - perfect!
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Kinsale



















Kinsale is so pretty...

Wandering around quirky independent book shops is one of my favourite ways to pass the time - I imagine myself as some character in a romantic adventure who is just about to stumble across some ancient, priceless manuscript. Let me tell you about some of the indie book shops I love.
1. The Kinsale Book-shop. A gem in this pretty coastal Irish town. Straight out of a James Joyce novel
2. Bart's Bookshop - a magical treasure trove of books built around a huge oak tree in the Californian town of Ojai. They call themselves the world's greatest outdoor book-shop. I agree!
3. Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights. Who couldn't love a book-shop with a name like this! This Bath store is just great - particularly the top-floor reading booth where you can bed-in with head-phones, coffee and your favourite tome.
4. Daunt Books. There are a few outposts of this famous book-store but head to their Marylebone branch to feel as if you've stepped back in time to be a character in a Dickens novel.
5. I love Lyme Regis - not just for those French Lieutenant beach moments but for their array of second hand book shops. Try the excellent 'The Bookshop' on Marina Parade by the Cobb or The Sanctuary - on Broad Street which actually offers B&B accomodation to book lovers!
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Greece



















This is a view of the pool at the Emelise...

People often ask me - where is a great place for a lazy summer holiday? I always point them in the direction of Fiskardo in Kefelonia. It's a picture post-card greek village - with oodles of chic (some seriously stylish yachts come in to moor) without the glitz or volume of visitors as St Tropez or Marbella. The hotel Emmelise - a five minute shuttle bus from the harbour is a fantastic place to stay in the area. Although it's a stunning boutique bolt-hole, it's not pretentious in the slightest and very family friendly.
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My new house...not!



















Mwah!

My friend Alex, the travel editor of Brides magazine has been on the phone. Do I want to go and review a hotel for their Honeymoon guide. Do I? Do I!
We are sent to the Hotel Grand Cap ferrat – a twenty five minute drive from Nice airport on that manicured finger of land known as Cap ferrat. This part of the Cote D'Azur is one of the most expensive places in the world to live – the villas that poke behind the high stone walls belong to Russian oligarches and Euro billionaires. The hotel itself is a gem. You waft around the white foyer feeling like Grace Kelly, eat on the pine scented terrace next to some of the wealthiest people on earth and go for a snooze in a bed the width of a double decker bus. I loved it. My husband loved. The hotel's beach club with its candy pink parasols and azure lap-pool is the last word in Old-school glamour.
The snag - it’s very pricey but I can't think of a better way to start married life or simply to spoil yourself rotten than in this little pocket of paradise.



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Thursday, 16 July 2009

Summer 2009 - Australia


As I write, I am sitting at a little desk in our rented house in Noosa, on Australia's Sunshine Coast. From here, I can see the huge waves breaking on the beach. The plan of course is to make a start on the next book, but it's easy to get distracted, with so many beautiful views wherever you walk - and who wants to stay inside when the sky's blue? Still, on the way here we did manage to squeeze in a couple of days in Bangkok (amazing hotel right on the river), then a week in Double Bay in Sydney, then a road-trip through the tropical north, including a hair-raising drive to the Undara lava tubes (proper outback complete with 'roos and emus wandering about, but no real road to speak of), a day snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef and a wonderful visit to the Cape Tribulation in the Daintree Forest - the world's oldest rainforest. I'll update more as we go, but here are a few photos to be going on with. That's Sydney harbour from the top of Rose Bay in the top photo, by the way - beautiful.
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The Bush


Note that there isn't usually that much tarmac!
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White sand between the toes



Me on the beach at Cape Trib. It was seven dollars for the hat!
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