LIZ FIELDING

I'M BACK!

I'm back from my holiday and first up I have to thank Christine Stovell for being my guest last week. I loved TURNING THE TIDE and hope the taster will send you all rushing out to buy it.

The winner of a signed copy is TracyE with her brilliant seasickness cure - sell the boat. Nice one, Tracy. :)

And thanks to May and Adam for standing in for me.

Having read a really excellent review someone posted about the book I feel I should post a competition to see who spotted the mistake that slipped past me, my editor and my copy editor in this book. (Answers in a plain brown envelope.) But honestly, I'm hoping you didn't notice and anyway it's illegal to have a competition where you actually have to buy something, so maybe not.

So what did we do on our hols? Not a lot to be honest. We sat about reading in the sunshine - a glass of something chilled conveniently close to hand. We went to Dartmouth on a steam train that runs along the coast and saw a wedding taking place at one of the old stations en route, which was fun.

We revisited Brixham for the first time in over 40 years. It seemed shabbier despite the fancy new aparts along the harbour, but we took the ferry to Torquay where we sat outside a lovely Italian restaurant and had great food.

Paignton Zoo was fun. Loved the meerkats and they have some huge giant tortoises. I'm not a huge fan of zoos but the setting was lovely and they some great conservation work, particularly in Botswana which, as you all know, is dear to my heart.

On the way home we stayed for a couple of nights in Frome. Lovely buzzy town with a terrific cultural and artistic life. Wish I could be there for the festival this month.

This is Cheap Street, which is very old and where a tiny stream still runs through a rill at the centre and contains temptation in the shape of a great book shop and a store that sells beautiful Radley bags.

The weather was amazingly kind to us - just one shower in the evening when we were safely back in the cottage.


But it's lovely to be home again.

A kindly neighbour kept my pots watered so everything was looking lovely. Let the taps run for a minute, then make that first cup of tea just the way you like it.

Perfect.