Newsletters
FLAVOURS OF FRANCE
I have just returned from my annual visit to London for the FRANCE SHOW held over three bustling and exuberant days at Olympia, Kensington. This one was particularly special for me because I was presenting my new novel, THE FORGOTTEN… Continue reading
Christmas 2015
Hello! Season’s Greetings.
I don’t know about you, but I am winding down from a very busy year.
Last week I was in London recording two of my books for Clipper/W.F.Howes who produce first-class audio books.
The first, A… Continue reading
A Simple Act of Kindness
Dear Friends,
This is an exciting autumn moment for me.
My new novel to be published by Penguin early next year has disappeared off to the copy editor; we are preparing for this year’s olive harvest which looks set to… Continue reading
Happy Days
Hello from a very hot South of France. (currently 34C)
The announcement of the news announced today in The Bookseller (link below) has been such a LONG time coming – I have been busting for three months to tell you.… Continue reading
April Newsletter
Hello!
Are you glad Easter is behind you? Ours has been wet although yesterday morning it cleared up and the sun is now shining and promises to remain with us for at least another week. Fortunately, the two days of… Continue reading
December Newsletter
Dear friend,
This will be the briefest of Newsletters and will not contain a great deal of news!
I am intending to deliver my new novel later today or tomorrow so I am DEEP in the world of my ‘lost… Continue reading
September Newsletter
I am writing this from Biarritz, a seaside town originally put on the map as a holiday resort by Napoléon III when he built his beloved Spanish wife, Eugénie de Montijo, a two-storey villa set high on a windy bluff… Continue reading
June 2014
I am sending this from Rome where I have disappeared to for a few days to escape dogs, sheep (yes!), olive trees and all commitments other than writing. I have found myself a perfectly airy studio in the eaves of… Continue reading
Hotel Paradise
It is a special day today. A Publication Day. Hotel Paradise, my latest story for the Kindle Single store on Amazon, goes live. Hooray. We are all very excited about it.
As with The Girl in Room Fourteen… Continue reading
Christmas Newsletter
It is almost Christmas although I have not yet begun to do very much about it. We are both still hard at work, attempting to complete all our commitments before everyone shuts up shop for two weeks.
There is a… Continue reading
September Newsletter
These last few blisteringly hot months have been packed with work. A few journeys undertaken but mostly I have been at my desk at the farm, scribbling away. These are the days when I appreciate how very privileged my life… Continue reading
July Newsletter
We are at home and the Olive Farm is gearing up for my mother’s 89th birthday this week. I am going out later this morning to order the cake. We have a young couple from the States staying with us. They are on holiday from Morocco. Deep down in the south and close to the Algerian border is where they are based, working a two-year appointment for the US Peace Corps. Their stories of life in such a remote community are fascinating. Coincidentally, he has the same birthday as my mother so I will be ordering a double cake. One cake shaped like the number 8 lying on its side, I think. Continue reading
Rainy May
Around the world in eighty days… well, perhaps not quite around the world but it certainly feel as though I have not stopped travelling since I last wrote a Newsletter in December.
Where to begin?
Let me start with the US Tour because it has certainly been a highlight of this year so far. I began in Texas and from there flew to LA, on to San Francisco with several neighbouring stops including the Sonoma Wine Valley. From there, I crossed the continent to New York, upstate New York, then to Detroit, to Ohio where I was thrown an unforgettable birthday party, and then last stop Chicago – a city I have never visited before but one that won my heart.
And the good news is that I have received several invitations to return next year spring and to visit other states, other cities that were not on the itinerary this time. So, if you have an event early next year in the States or you would like me to visit your bookshop or garden centre or botanical gardens or even front yard, now is the time to put in the request… Continue reading
Winter 2012
It has been a while since I have written a Newsletter and I apologise for that. We have been building a new website and I had no idea how much time or energy this would take. I sincerely hope you will enjoy the results and that, once we have the teething problems dealt with, you will see that it is a more sophisticated tool than the last one. It will include a blog so that I can write to you whenever I feel there is some news rather than waiting for a seasonal letter such as this one.
It also has links to my lovely facebook page Olive Farm (http://www.facebook.com/olive.farm) and to my Pïnterest site (http://pinterest.com/CarolDrinkwater/).
At the foot of the Home Page are links to both of these, for easy access.
I have added an Acting page for those who remain interested in that aspect of my career and I have created a dedicated page for some of my published travel articles including a few of the Postcards from Provence I write regularly for the excellent France magazine. Each ‘postcard’ is cleverly illustrated by the artist Tim Wesson. Continue reading
Summer 2012
I know that for those of you in Britain and Ireland, the weather has been lousy and for many in the United States, there have been floods or fires. So, I hope everyone is safe and well. Here, I almost hate to admit it, the weather is quite magnificent, as is the garden. Because we had intense rain in mid-spring and a very warm spell during the flowering season, nature seems to have stocked up on all that she needs for abundant displays of vibrant blossom and long lazy days. I am listening to the cicadas and turtle doves now, as I write this. Continue reading
Spring 2012
And what a spring! Weather patterns everywhere seem a little bizarre, a little extreme, don’t they? Friends tell me that England and Ireland have been experiencing a pre-Easter heat wave and now snow threatens! I have to admit that we have been enjoying well above average temperatures with some days reaching as high as 26/27° Celsius. And this is March!
Because I am a lizard and come alive when the sun shines, I do love these hot sunny days, but there is also a concern. Is this normal or is it a result of climate change? Continue reading
December 2011
I am writing this letter from Rome, not from the Olive Farm. A visit to Rome just before Christmas is my idea of joy. Fortunately, thanks to the schedule for The Olive Route films, I have been given the perfect opportunity to indulge my pleasure this month.
I arrived two days ago. Once installed at my hotel in a residential district known as Prati, which is equidistant between the Vatican and the Spanish Steps, I set off walking. Like Paris, Rome is a wonderful city to Continue reading
August 2011
Have we celebrated Bastille Day, the fourteenth of July, already? Yes, indeed. We sat out on the terrace, enjoying a late barbecue watching fireworks shooting into the sky from every Provençal village encircling us. The most spectacular, of course, were those down at the coast in Cannes.
The year seems to be running ahead of me and I cannot quite keep up. Continue reading
March 2011
Hello!
My word, spring is everywhere and I hardly feel the year has begun.
Those of you on my Olive Farm Facebook page will know that my feet have barely touched the ground this year. Directly after Christmas, I was in London for the France Show at Earls Court where I met many readers, some of whom have become longstanding friends now. On the Saturday, a lunch was arranged and thirty or so of us went off to celebrate together after my talk and book-signing that day. It was great fun. I am sure that another such event will be organised at some point in the near future so if you want to be included, please join the Facebook page and introduce yourself. Continue reading
December 2010
The holidays of Christmas and the New Year are almost upon us and I am hardly aware of them. Of course, I know these days of rest and merriment are creeping towards me, bringing with them blizzards, sack-loads of fallen snow, shoppers bustling to and fro, office parties, coloured lights in the streets, but such images are hard for me to picture while I am travelling in southern regions wandering through olive groves. Continue reading
