Hi
Do you ever find that when you pack lots of things into a weekend, it seems to last longer? This month we had 24 hours in Dorset, which was a spur of the moment thing, acting as taxi so my daughter could avoid a 10 hour round trip train journey. I took the opportunity to book us in at Knoll House Hotel in Studland. When I was a child, we spent a few summer holidays at a campsite near Corfe Castle and drove to Studland beach every day. (As ever with these things, I don’t remember it raining on a single day during these holidays, although I’m sure it must have done.) We passed Knoll House Hotel every day and I used to think it was so posh and stylish and beautiful. I fell in love with it and have been hankering to stay there ever since. Many years later I found out that Enid Blyton spent many months a year there because her husband owned the nearby Purbeck golf course. So for me it was a bit of a pilgrimage to see where Enid wrote some of the books I loved so much.
The hotel is a bit of a time warp. In some ways it’s looking tired, but it has so much character and feels like it’s been untouched since the fifties. The dining room was beautiful, there was a roaring fire in the reception and we had an actual key to unlock the room. We walked along the beach to Shell Bay restaurant in the evening and that’s the picture at the top. It’s right on the edge of Poole harbour, overlooking Sandbanks and Brownsea Island and they do the most amazing seafood.
The picture on the left is the hotel from the road, nestled in the trees. The middle picture is the view from our room with a glimpse of the sea! And the picture on the right is me sitting at Enid Blyton’s preferred writing spot in the corner of the dining room. Bizarrely I had chosen this exact spot for breakfast out of a good number of other lovely spots before I knew this!
This wholesome, nostalgic weekend was followed by a trip to Butlins Minehead for a Fat Boy Slim weekend. I was expecting something along the lines of the Ibiza weekends we’ve been to before but, thank goodness, this one was full of people the same age as us, up for a bit of 90s nostalgia. I secretly quite enjoyed myself, although I haven’t let on because going as a ‘favour’ to Mr W wins me some brownie points which come in useful when I need to rope him into something he doesn’t want to do :-)
And after all that excitement I was ready for a weekend of doing not much at all. Having been away meant that I had missed a few weeks of wild swimming and I thought the temperature might have dropped too much for me to pick up again but I’m so pleased I decided to go because it was freezing but gloriously uplifting. I did go into the sea in Dorset but it was coupled with a beach sauna so didn’t really count. And the sea in Minehead didn’t look that appealing. The lake is so pretty I think it fools my brain into thinking it’s altogether a pleasant thing to do at any time of year.
The left picture is Mr W on Studland beach. The middle is Minehead and then on the right is me at the lake last weekend.
Christmas in Iceland
This is my Christmas novella that will be out next week! It is Isak’s story who you might remember is Leifur’s brother from Adrift in Iceland. It’s a short story set in Christmassy Reykjavik where Isak runs into Emý, an old friend who is in town just for Christmas, dog-sitting for her parents. Realising that they’re both facing Christmas alone, they decide to spend it together…
I’m going to send a newsletter on release day to let you know, but I don’t know exactly when that will be yet. We’re releasing it in paperback and eBook and are waiting on the paperback proof to arrive from Amazon before we can confirm a release date, but I am confident it will be before 8th December.
As well as the regular paperback from Amazon, we will be adding signed copies to my website shop as well as some limited edition Christmas book boxes and bundles! Information on all of this will be in the release day newsletter. In the meantime here is an excerpt from the first chapter when Isak and Emý run into each other again…
Isak gave the hull of
Brimfaxi
an affectionate pat before he shoved his hands in his pockets and walked towards the town. It was after ten o’clock, and on one hand it felt too early to go home, and besides, it was the start of the Christmas celebrations for him now he’d finished work. But he was exhausted and, despite the nagging feeling he might miss out, he knew he’d have a better time if he saw some friends over the next few days rather than go by himself to a bar now.
He walked through Ingólfstorg Square, which had a small Christmas market of wooden huts with twinkling lights strung between them, selling food, drinks and a variety of small handmade gifts. The smell of spiced mulled wine hit his nostrils and stopped him in his tracks. It was just the thing he needed to start his Christmas.
‘One glögg, please,’ he said to the young woman behind the counter. He tapped his phone to pay and wrapped his hands around the steaming paper cup.
On the other side of the square was an ice rink. It had a pillar in the centre of it that was laden with fairy lights, and strings of lights ran from the top of the pillar to the outer edges of the rink, making it look incredibly pretty and festive. There were a handful of people on the ice, and while he waited for his wine to cool enough to drink, he leant his forearms on the barrier and watched. The skaters were a mixture of abilities, from a woman who looked very accomplished, gliding around with ease, to the families with small children who were holding hands and laughing in their efforts to keep everyone upright.
‘Look out!’
Before Isak could work out what was happening, a woman careered into the barrier where he was standing, knocking his drink out of his hand and landing on her bottom in a puddle of red wine on the ice in front of him.
‘Are you alright? Here.’ He leant over the barrier and reached out his hand for the woman to take, which she did. He pulled her up until she grabbed the barrier with both hands and then looked up at him gratefully.
‘Isak!’
‘Emý!’
She snatched her hand out of his, her expression changing the moment she realised who had helped her.
Reading and watching
Hurray! The Christmas reading has commenced! I’ve started with So This is Christmas by Helen Rolfe. It’s on Prime reading so if you have Amazon Prime you can read it for free. I have only just started but it is already a good read, and is set in Vienna which gives the promise of Christmas markets and a beautiful setting.
Just before that I read A Touch of Magic at the Comfort Food Cafe by Debbie Johnson. I LOVE the Comfort Food Cafe series and I thought Debbie had finished the series so I was delighted to find this new one. It was wonderful! The main character is Sarah, a forty-nine year old writer who moves to Budbury to escape London after a disastrous relationship ended. The hero, Aidan is my new book boyfriend. He is absolutely devastating and I totally fell for him. It’s a great read.
I managed to persuade Mr W to watch a Christmas movie a couple of weeks ago. He was reluctant since it wasn’t December yet, as if that’s some kind of rule but we watched Merry Little ExMas on Netflix and both thoroughly enjoyed it. I am ready for more now! Obviously I have dipped into a few of the Channel 5 Christmas movies already but I want to get stuck into some serious watching of old classics like The Holiday and While You Were Sleeping. And all the others! If you’ve enjoyed anything new this year, Christmas movie wise, let me know.
Happy reading and enjoy the run up to Christmas, it’s the best bit!
Victoria
x
