Dear Readers, Friends, I am writing this from a very scorched-earth Olive Farm. I have never seen it so dry here; the plants so sad and desiccated. No rain for months. I am sure, wherever you are, you will have been reading about the fires here in France. Fortunately for us, thank heavens, the closest…

Hello, dear friends. Greetings from France! I am writing this from our northern abode situated in between Paris and the Champagne region. A home I long ago christened The Mad Old Chateau not because it is a chateau – it is not – but because it is a very old stone property or rather two…

Hello to you all, dear friends, Spring has opened the gate here at the Olive Farm and is slowly making its way up the drive. While I am standing down by the pool giving the new season’s arrival a big wave and a sigh of relief. What a time! What a dark and scary time…

Well, dear readers and friends, I am home after a whistle-stop month, jumping like a grasshopper from one location to the next. It has been HUGE fun; I have met some of the best people: booksellers, readers, a writer or two; did an event in Edinburgh with my wonderful friend Jenny Colgan … ONE SUMMER…

Dear Readers and Friends, Today is the first of July. Summer is officially here. France, like other parts of Europe, is suffering under a canicule, a heatwave, that is very intense. In this kind of extreme weather, I only venture out of doors very early in the mornings, from about 6 onwards to water the…

Dear Readers, May is here, a crazy mix of hot sun and fast-falling showers and angry thunderstorms. The land is so full of life, of growth and colour, that I feel Michel and I should move out and leave the pollinators, the blossoms and nesting birds to it! We have every kind of fruit from…

Dear Readers, Hello from the Olive Farm where spring is finally kicking its heels! Winter seems to have been endless this year, don’t you agree? However, the days are getting longer now. Our farm is brightened by fast-growing mimosa trees that are still in full chick-yellow blossom. The almond trees with their delicate pale pink…

Hello Dear Readers! In France we are allowed to wish others Happy New Year up to the last day of January. It cannot be said before New Year’s Day and then only through the month of Jan. So, I am just in time. Happy New Year! For 2025, I pray for Peace on Earth, an…

Good Morning, I am writing this from my desk at our Mad Old Chateau east of Paris where it is misty, very wintery and damp. I don’t mind it though. Beyond the windows, the grass is full of mushrooms and mole hills while indoors we have a roaring log fire on the go. My mother…

Dear friends, It is midsummer here. I am in the south of France where the heat is almost suffocating if one is not fortunate enough to live by the sea, have access to a pool or be able to escape to the mountains. Up north, in Paris, the Olympic Games known here as JO (Jeux…

I have been walking through wildflowers on the terraces that are waist high. The butterflies, bees, pollinators are gorging on their delights. The land really does feel to be alive, which is joyous to experience.

Hello dear friends, I am writing this on a cold, wet, blustery day in northern France, at our Mad Old Chateau. I have a chest infection. Last weekend I was in Berlin, accompanying Michel for a few days to the Berlin Film Festival where it was even wetter and windier. Fortunately I escaped the cold…

Dear Readers and Friends, I am late with this again. Apologies. The last few weeks have been challenging and very busy. I seem to have spent most of late November and December in airports. I have been to London three times and to Dublin once. All that aside from trajectories between the Olive Farm and…

Hello dear Friends, My goodness, we are are experiencing temperatures here in the south of France that are WAY above what we used to think of as average for this time of year. Every day it hits close to or a wee bit higher than 30C. It has meant a change of life in that…

Hello Dear Friends! Welcome to my Spring Newsletter.   This last week has been a bit of a whirlwind. Last Saturday, the 22nd, was my birthday – a  milestone one. We celebrated quietly but with gusto. M took me for dinner to one of my favourite “special” spots, La Colombe d’Or in Saint Paul de…

Dear Reader, Spring is in sight. Mediterranean Spring. We have almond blossoms almost in full flower which, of course, is the first sign of spring around the Mediterranean basin. Do I say this every year? Possibly. I am always so overjoyed to see that lovely pale pink petal showing its face like a blush on…

Happy New Year! There was a time when I used to look to the years after 2,000 and think of them as distant stars. A universe I could not see into or imagine. Now, here we are, almost a quarter of a century into this millennium. It hardly seems possible. I remember my father when…

This was last year. Ours is not up yet! This letter is so overdue that I am almost too embarrassed to apologise, but here we are and … erm, sincere apologies. My last note was in July. I wrote it soon after Michel and I had made a journey across southern France to spend a…

Happy Easter, dear Readers and Friends! I am moving offices! A few yards from one building at our home outside Paris (fondly known as the Mad Old Chateau) to another crumbling stone building on the same patch of land. Today is Good Friday, the sun is shining and I am traipsing back and forth through…