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Auction – eat with a TV chef!

Bidders are invited to make secret, silent bids from 1st August – see details below.
We offer a 100% guarantee that no bid will be opened until bidding ends at 8.00p.m. on Sunday 12th September and thereafter all bids will be kept secret. Thus, if any person who wishes to bid is away on holiday or business during the Festival, but would like to make a secret SILENT bid, they can do so

  • Lot 1. A Week for FOUR in a Cottage in Laugharne in South Wales – the village of Dylan Thomas.

  • Lot 2. A conducted tour for up to SIX people of Castle Hill with Lady Arran.

  • Lot 3. A tour for TWO at the RNLI Lifeboat Station at Appledore with a special tour of the new £2.7m Tamar Lifeboat.

  • Lot 4. A half day for FOUR with TV Chef and multi Rosette winner, Richard Hunt at the Grand Hotel Torquay – followed by lunch or dinner.

  • Lot 5. An afternoon and evening visit for TWO to the BBC Television Production Control Centre in Bristol. See a ‘live’ News programme being prepared and broadcast.

  • Lot 6. A unique black tie candlelit four course private dinner for FOUR with champagne, special wines and musical Entertainment.

Why seals are better than valium …


Make no mistake, the writer’s life does not consist of lolling about on chaise longues and rifling through a box of violet creams while slugging back the Dom Perignon. Far from it, if you want to be a success in this day and age. And the time around publication is always particularly stressful – although the actual book might have been put to bed some time ago, there are still many things to be done, not least press and publicity. Added to this is the anxiety of how well your book will perform – and the chances are other people will find out before you will. I am not one of those writers who check their Amazon ranking every two minutes – that way madness lies – but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care at all how well my book does!

It’s no wonder, then, that a simple cold has turned into a hideous lurgy that has left me exhausted, voiceless and far from match-fit. So yesterday I gave myself a proper day off – a day off when I didn’t even turn on the computer or check my emails. And I set off with my husband and youngset son to Morte Point, in search of seals.

It was a cloudless day, with a light breeze. We stood on the cliff tops,looking down at the caerulean water lapping the treacherous rocks. And then we saw one – a shiny black nose peeping out of the water. First one … then three … then a grand total of six. They weren’t doing anything, our seals. Just lying on their backs, being. Happy. Blissful. Contented.

And so we took a leaf out of their books, and just sat there. Being.
For half an hour. Happy. Blissful. Contented.

Saw six seals (Revelation 6:12)

We went for a walk over Morte Point (North Devon). The blobs bobbing up and down below in the rock, outcropped sea were like grey smudges. Risking life and limb (and my fear of heights) Paddy and I got closer – below us, watching us, six seals relaxed and called to each other – magic

Trust me there are seals

Apparently the six seals include the four horsemen of the apocalypse,  and  cosmic unrest. There is a seventh seal which signals a stillness in heaven which is the prelude to God’s wrath.

I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, (Revelation 6:12)

FANTASTIC COMPETITION! WIN BEACH BAG GOODIES

To celebrate the publication of The Beach Hut, my publishers Orion have launched a fantastic competition to win a huge array of beach-tastic goodies, including a deck-chair and a beach barbecue!

I’ve got a horrible feeling I’m not allowed to enter, but wish you good luck if you do!

ENTER HERE!

In the meantime, my biggest dilemma is my HAIR. Having taken the drastic step of going dark for a year in the mistake belief that it would take less maintenance [no! grey roots on dark show up much more quickly], I have gone back to blonde as yes, they do have more fun. But the hairdresser who re-blonded me is more than three hours drive away … how am I going to fit that into my schedule? Am I being a princess? I don’t think so – when you find someone who gets it just right, it’s a risky business going somewhere else.

Finally, a big shout out to the lovely manager at Skylon, who is posting me back my favourite mac after the BBC party the other night … It’s a fabulous venue if you are thinking of having a big celebration.