REFLECTION AND ENDINGS

Here I am at Petworth House - pleased to be wearing my gorgeous Purple-Shoes-From-Paris. I've found another folly and am in reflective pose because my book is coming towards the end and I must deliver even more emotional punch.

I started thinking about famous endings to books and here is my favourite, from F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby.

(I'm delighted that he seems to love ellipses and dashes as much as I do - and it still makes me shiver whenever I read it).

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning ——

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

So what ending to a book has marked itself indelibly on your mind?

Oxford wedding

A vast wooden door, opening straight onto the picturesque high-street - leads into a secret world of cloistered gardens and ancient stone. Yes, I'd finally got my foot inside an Oxford college (and wished I worked harder at school!)

Where erstwhile students can marry......

And this is Sarah, my clever cousin, marrying the musically-gifted Tom.

Don't they look gorgeous?

Here I am with my cousin Gerald - with whom I shared many a happy (!) game of Monopoly when I was growing up.



And here's the dining hall where we ate the delicious wedding breakfast and I kept looking up, expecting to see banks of floating candles or magical happenings occurring around the portraits, because it was just like being on the set of a Harry Potter film.....

Since I'm a romantic novelist, and since Mills & Boon is currently running a competition to find a new writer - would you like to share your experience of Beautiful Weddings You Have Been To? It might inspire some of the entrants.....

A Folly and EXCITING NEWS!

I couldn't resist trying out this balletic pose while exploring the beautiful gardens at Nymans, which I mentioned in an earlier post.


Here are some pretty flowers (aka "exquisite herbaceous borders")



This is the surreal house - minus a roof!


And this is what they call a Herm


Are you still with me? Do you like the Herm?

As for the exciting news - it's for all you would-be romantic novelists who are longing to write the most powerful love-story of all time.

Well, now you can.

AND you can get it published.

All you have to do is to enter the fantastic new competition being run by Mills & Boon.

So what are you waiting for?

IN THE PINK

Here's my lovely daughter, Celia.


And last Sunday, she and I were running for CANCER RESEARCH UK



Southampton Common was sunlit and beautiful and the atmosphere was amazing - with masses of people joining in this very worthwhile fundraiser. Some of the stories we heard were heartbreaking; all of them were inspiring. It made me realise how much in life we take for granted.

(WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU WANT TO KNOW OUR TIME?) Okay, then - it was a perfectly respectable 5 kilometres in 26 minutes (though Celia did a sprint finish ahead of me!).

And now I'm getting stuck into my Russian hero (in a manner of speaking) - who lives in the most sumptuous house in the south of France. I've based it on the fabulous Rothschild Villa - which has possibly the most stunning location in the world. In fact, just looking at it makes my mouth water.

What property has made you swoon with delight?

ON A HIGH IN FRANCE

7 JULY 2010

ON A HIGH IN FRANCE

Sometimes things happen which surpass even the boundless realms of the imagination - and Monday was one such day.

I'd been weekending in Paris - a wild and wonderful time which involved partying in a garage, getting lost while out jogging by the Seine and having to be rescued by a kindly woman who took me into her home (merci, Laurence!) and visiting Normandy to explore an exquisite Cathedral in Evreux.

I didn't just visit it - but climbed up scaffolding, slithered through trap-doors like a jack-in-the-box and took an escalator which consisted of a mesh cage which juddered up into the sky.

The opportunity to do this came about through the brilliant sculptor Jean Garleita

whose Parisian atelier I visited in January. Currently, he is working his magic on restoring the Cathedral's beautiful sculptures.

And here he is:



See how high I am!




And check this out for the most sublime of views....





This was taken (following a delicious lunch) with Jean and fellow sculptor, Philippe.

And here, in the dreamy gardens outside - is Jean with his cousin - the ever-charmant and hospitable Michele.

It was an awfully big adventure....I still haven't quite come down from the experience.

What was your greatest adventure?

PASSION

After the appalling disappointment of England's performance in the World Cup against "arch-rivals Germany" (as the tabloids can't resist saying) - there is only one sporting possibility who keeps our hearts aflame with hope.

And here he is:

Yes, it's ANDY MURRAY (and looking like a bit of a heart-throb!). Go Andy!

Sport arouses such strong and frustrating passion....maybe I should just channel it all into my current hero, who is a cold-hearted Russian oligarch.

Who are you rooting for at the moment?

SHAMELESSLY PARTISAN

National excitement was in the air today as England prepared for their crucial match against Slovenia. Pubs were packed. Some folk skivved off work. Football-related discussions could be overheard in shops among the most unlikely of people. Everyone had an opinion. Mostly it went along the lines of "Rooney-is-rubbish-and-why-doesn't-Capello-play-Joe-Cole?"

I'd even decorated my car (and that's my Dad in the background!).

Well, it was a tense and nail-biting ninety-three minutes and Slovenia proved worthy opponents, but eventually the final whistle blew and we could all start singing:

"Three Lions on a shirt,

Jules Rimet still gleaming

Thirty years of hurt

Never stopped me dreaming."

SO, the big question remains. Will England bring home the World Cup again?

And who do you think is going to be in the final?