Home Thoughts Weekly

‘Erm, I was wondering if you’ve done anything for our anniversary?’ ‘No,’ says Tom, looking anxious. ‘Have you?’ ‘No,’ I reply, thinking phew ! It’s not that we’re unromantic and, of course, it would be lovely to splash out on something frivolous like an iPad each – except that’s the best part of year’s heating oil - but money’s not really what it’s about. Which is just as well. Luckily for us , Lily and Rose and their other halves have very kindly made sure that our anniversary will be memorable. Our Christmas present from them is a night in a swanky boutique hotel (‘Well, we knew you wouldn’t do it for yourselves.’). Yippee! So we are heading north on our jaunt soon and greatly looking forwards to it. We’ve even decided to see a bit more of the area courtesy of a Premier Inn special offer… should be an interesting ‘compare and contrast’, shouldn’t it? In other news ... Monday 5 March sees the announcement of the category winners of the Romantic Novelists’ Association A...

This week has brought my parents-in-law to Hotel H for their first visit of the year. Their stay coincides with a quick trip from Lily for more things wedding. Sunday morning arrives bright and clear, so Lily and I decide on a brisk walk to the beach before she heads off at lunch-time to catch her train. Seeing the sun, MiL and DiL decide to accompany us for as long they can manage and Tom says he can always pop back for the car if they have to give up. The good news is MiL and DiL complete the full mile and a half walk down to the beach. The bad news is that it’s taken twice as long as usual, the sun’s gone in, rain’s threatening and it’s a humungously steep climb to get home. Lily and I decide to forge on ahead to get the car, but, having blasted our way back, discover that the spare key is not in its secret hiding place. Pretty soon the garden is like a scene from Time Team , but the spare key is nowhere to be found. Leaving Lily sheltering from the cold, I hoof back down t...

‘ Sit this side,’ says Tom, as I board the train. ‘Then you can look at the view.’ I have to admit that it hasn’t occurred to me to look out the window when I’ve got my Kindle and almost two hours reading time before I meet my elder daughter, known here as Lily, at Cardiff Central. As someone driven by the constant fear of time running out, I can’t even walk up and down stairs without thinking of something that might need to go with me. But on this bitterly cold, clear morning, I’m so glad to have done as I’m told for once. From Carmarthen, the railway drops down to Ferryside and along the coast which is spectacularly lovely in the frosted fondant colours of the morning light. Clusters of oystercatchers are slapping along the shoreline, poking orange beaks into the exposed sandflats and a calm, glassy sea shimmers under a low-slung sun. At Swansea, the train fills and the peace is shattered by a group of ladies eager to shop in Cardiff and happy to share their digestive com...

I always feel a bit hesitan t about discussing my writing here. I think it’s to do with not being the kind of writer who trots out two thousand words before breakfast. In fact, if my writing was a lover, I’d have walked out years ago! It’s moody, evasive, constantly threatens my self-esteem, but I hang on because that rare feeling when everything falls into place is utterly sublime and powerfully addictive. I have to work hard at what I do, but it’s not hard work. Anyway, because people have been interested enough to ask, I thought I’d say a bit about the book I’ve just finished and the one I’ve started. I tend to soak up impressions of places so the setting for Turning the Tide was born out of all the sleepy, seaside towns I’ve visited whilst sailing. Move Over Darling is influenced by the experience of living on the coast of west Wales. One of the first things that struck me when I moved here was that the population of Ceredigion is roughly the same as the town in the s...

Look!  Those lovely people at Choc Lit have sent me a new contract for Book 2.  I'm absolutely delighted to say that Move Over Darling  will be out later this year.

‘Guess what?’ I say to my sister , ‘I’ve made my own marmalade!’ There is a good deal of laughter from the other end of the phone and my sister goes off to share the hilarious news with Ma, who’s round there because she’s been struck down by the Mighty Cold that seems to be catching up with everyone. ‘Even I’ve never made marmalade,’ Ma mutters, sounding incredulous and impressed at the same time. Actually, this is more about my role in the family as the opposite of a Domestic Goddess. As a former school cook, Ma’s culinary skills are pretty impressive, whereas it’s a well-known fact that if Tom didn’t cook for me, I’d live on toast and pasta. Sewing? I fell out of love with sewing in my very first lesson when I stood up and discovered that I’d stitched my square of gingham fabric very firmly to my gingham dress. My sister is the Queen of Curtains, and contrives the most amazing, lined, interlined and weighted creations. My own, much simpler, efforts are produced with a g...

How many memories does a rectangle hold? When Stepson Two’s Gorgeous Girlf asked, one lunch-time over the New Year celebrations, where we’d bought our dining room table it set me thinking about this ordinary piece of furniture. There’s never been any money in the budget for expensive furniture and neither of us enjoys trudging round shops for the sake of it, so our table, like so much of our furniture, comes from Ikea. It’s plain, solid and seats eight people. We bought it for our first home when we could finally afford to upgrade from the tiny, circular garden table that four of us had been squeezing round. Since then it’s been dismantled and reassembled for three moves and is now in its fourth home where I hope it’ll remain for many years to come. It’s the place where we sit to eat every meal and has been the starting point for so many memorable family occasions. My daughters have grown from little girls to young women here; we’ve laughed, cried, argued and made up, seen b...