It was the seagulls she remembered most as a child. Walking the dull grey streets of the island in winter, or sitting on the beach during summer, the seagulls were a constant thread of maritime provenance, a wheeling cloud of white noise that punctuated the seasons. The small island where Audrey lived sat proud as a castle of rock amidst the tidal races of the Cherbourg peninsular, and the seagulls ebbed and flowed with the tide, following the fishing boats as they worked the waters around the islands, across to mainland France, and back again.
Audrey was born in 1949, a product of a happy reunion between a mother and father who had spent five long years apart during the war. Her mother had remained alone at home in Guernsey at the end of the long lane above the cliffs. The population of the island endured a bitter occupation, but in the years that followed the war, Guernsey was fortunate not to suffer during the continued rationing that affected so much of the mainland, and the island returned to some normality far quicker than England. Audrey’s childhood was a relatively happy one, enhanced by a yearly summer trip to the French coastline, so often a dark smudge to the east on a fine day. Audrey felt a kinship with the French people and their country.
One Christmas, Audrey came across an old French phrasebook at a church sale. Fascinated by the words and sentences, she dawdled so long at the trestle table and its mountains of books that the lady behind it waved away Audrey’s sixpence with a smile when she finally looked up to pay. The young girl took the small book home and studied it religiously, finding at last some sense in the French names that dotted the island on street signs, building plaques and the signposts at the end of each granite wall. As she grew older her horizons broadened and she learnt more about the very people themselves, whose names had become part and parcel of the Guernsey landscape. Her parents encouraged her interest, for as descendants of French immigrants many hundreds of years ago, they also shared that special affinity with the country out to the east across the water, as most Guernsey people do.
Each yearly vacation on the continent only reinforced Audrey’s love for the country, and so it was no great surprise to her family when she left home in June of 1968 with a backpack, catching a lift on a friend’s fishing boat across to France she embarked on what was supposed to be a three-month summer adventure.
Hitchhiking her way to Brittany, she found temporary employment on a campsite set high on the pink cliffs to the west of Paimpol. All across Europe, young people were traveling in an era of free love, luridly coloured clothing and an explosive mix of music, fashion and drugs. Audrey was a good girl, though, from a solid island background, and she proved herself to be a reliable and calm employee. She spoke relatively good French and English, and proved herself adept at most tasks set before her during that first summer abroad. When the season ended, the campsite owners had taken to her so much that she was almost a part of their family and they begged her to return the following year. She agreed with a smile and set off southwards with friends to pick grapes in Médoc, to earn a little additional income, before turning her eyes even further southwards to the new craze in the Pyrenees where snow formed a perfect contrast for sunburnt states of mind. There, people were hurtling themselves down mountains on skis of fiberglass and steel, and more work beckoned for those in the right frame of mind.
Along the way Audrey fell in with people of like mind, youngsters of sturdy limb, strong tanned backs and smiles to set the world on fire, a generation of freedom on the move with a backpack each and legs strong enough to march across Europe. It was during the first day on the way to the mountains, hunched in the back seat of a salesman’s big Citroën with a friend she’d made during the whirlwind grape harvest, that they stopped for lunch south of Bordeaux. The little restaurant was out off the main road, in a small village the salesman knew well, and after the three of them had finished their plat du jour the two girls left their driver smoking a prandial Gauloise, and set off to stretch their long tanned legs on a ten minute stroll through the hamlet before restarting their ride south.
On the outskirts of the hamlet in a small lane, they came across a tiny house shuttered up against intruders. The paint was peeling from the walls and it looked totally forlorn and unloved. A small grapevine was climbing up the front and an old stone bench seemed to been inviting them to come and sit down. A deliciously provocative, ‘À VENDRE’ (for sale) sign hung crookedly on the gate almost totally obscured by leaves; someone had scribbled a phone number underneath that was just about legible.
Startling herself, Audrey fell instantly in love with an idea so impossible for a 20 year-old girl that it made her heart sing. Why not buy this little cottage, and live here ever after? She made a note of the number and took some photos with her new little Kodak camera. Her traveling companion was a well-seasoned young woman, a couple of years older than Audrey called Mary, from Sydney in Australia, and she thought the idea was such fun that she giggled at the thought of it, and whispered with big eyes that Audrey would need to find a boyfriend to help her live her life to the full. They looked at each other at that remark and were still giggling when they got back to the car and the dozing salesman. Five hours later, they were in the golden-leafed city of Pau, and waving goodbye to their lift, they thumbed their way into the mountains, feeling the change in temperature.
It was nearly a week later that Audrey finally sat down at the payphone in the hostel with a pile of coins and rung the number she’d made a note of, and after five minutes she knew she would probably never own her dream little cottage. The man the other end had not sneered at her youth, nor at her imperfect but good French; instead he had answered her questions seriously and told her the price was 50,000 French francs, and although they had had no offers on the property yet, they would surely do so before long. Audrey mournfully put down the phone and went back to her small room she shared with Mary and broke the news. Together they reviewed the situation and Audrey’s growing amount of savings.
Over the summer she had tucked away just over 5000 francs with tips and a frugal lifestyle, working at the campsite and then serving beer behind the counter in the village bar several evenings a week. The bar had been popular with both locals and the visitors to the campsite and there was no shortage of shifts to work if one had the right attitude. Audrey’s determined outlook and her steadfast approach to work was unusual for one so young, but it had made her popular with adults, and a forlorn target for the young Frenchmen along the way who might have been attracted to her blonde hair and typically English corn-blue eyes. Then, of course, there was the pile of banknotes from the baskets of back-breaking grapes. It all added up to a huge sum for a young woman, but it was still nowhere near enough for her tiny house.
Sitting on their beds in the cosy little bedroom, Mary took the initiative and told Audrey not to give up. She’d done the exact same to finance her trip to Europe, working hard and saving until she’d felt happy with the amount of money saved, both to buy the airline ticket and to pay her way around the itinerary she’d set herself.
“Work hard, Auds,” Mary said, snuggling up under her blankets. “Think how much you’ll have by next year if you don’t give up!” She spoke with the conviction of someone who had struggled and succeeded on the same perilous journey where temptation lay at every step.
Audrey nodded miserably. She’d been mad to think it would all be an instant success, she knew, but each time she took out the photo she carried in her backpack of that little house, it smiled at her. She simply couldn’t stop dreaming about it. She nodded in agreement finally.
“You’re right, Mary, I shall just have to work more and save more.” Brightening up, she threw a pillow at her Australian friend and said, “Let’s go and make some hot chocolate in the kitchen!” and they fled, racing for the small shared facilities of the hostel, hoping someone might have left some Suchard in the jar.
The following March, Audrey hitched her way north to St.Malo, making a point of stopping along the way in the small village to see ‘her’ house. It was a brilliant spring day when she stepped cautiously down the street towards the gate. She’d managed to find an English couple in a battered old camper van heading northwards who had offered her a lift, and they waited at the end of the road, brewing a cup of tea as she approached ‘her’ house. She’d called the number, still tucked safely in her purse, before leaving the mountains and although surprised to find the house was still not sold, she wondered superstitiously whether it was a sign of fate that it should be so. The shutters still hung tenderly across the windows. She quickly took some more photos and went back to the camper van a little happier.
Four days later she was home in Guernsey for the first time in nine months, and still damp from a turbulent crossing on a French coaster she had happily recognized in St Malo as a friend of her father’s, she sat at the old pine table in her parents’ kitchen, surrounded by familiar loving faces, all agog at the tales of her travels and round-eyed at her adventures. Her pile of photographs were examined studiously, and after the stories and friends behind them had been reviewed and explained, she came to the dozen or so photos of her ‘house’ at the bottom of the stack. Her father had gathered rapidly that the Audrey who had returned home was a very different person from the teenager that had left, and gruff with pride at the change in the young woman, he looked intently at the pictures as he puffed on his pipe and listened to her plans, giving the photos the due consideration he understood she wanted.
“How much have you saved then, Audrey?” he asked simply, looking at her directly across the table. Her mother busied herself with the tea-pot and the remains of a fruit cake, keenly eying her daughter with fresh eyes.
“A little over 12,000 francs, daddy,” she relied proudly, fidgeting at the interrogation. Her brown face still showed traces of a winter sun from the mountains and she sat at the end of the table upright, aware she was different to her siblings and aware of the respect her father was giving her.
“But why on earth would you want to live there all by yourself?” voiced her mother. “Aren’t you a little young to be thinking of buying a property?”
Her mother crossed to the stone sink noisily, but it was her father who replied.
“If a young woman wants to think of creating a home, I’m not sure we should be stopping her,” he commented, tapping his pipe. Old-fashioned he may have been in some ways, but in his eyes anyone who wanted to put their trust in brick and stone was making a sound investment. It didn’t take but a stroll around St Peter Port, the small capital town on Guernsey, on a Saturday afternoon so see how most of the young would rather spend their money. He nodded at Audrey, strengthening his approval. He was a man of quick decisions, and he understood Audrey’s affection for France. If she chose to live there, and perhaps marry and spend her life there, then that was her choice, especially if she was happy. Besides, they could visit, and he and his wife always enjoyed their trips to the country to the east as well. He nodded again.
“What are you going to do then?” he asked, and leant forward to hear her reply.
Audrey had it all worked out. Much was dependent on the house still being for sale when she was able to make an offer. “I need to work another whole summer in France at the campsite, dad, and then perhaps pick grapes for a month or so. I might have made enough by then to tell you something,” and she winced at the memories of the telephone calls she had made home during those long nine months, a call every week. If she’d only saved all that money as well, and she sighed at the costs.
Two months later, she passed the island of Jersey as she sat on a new ferry to St Malo with a larger, new backpack on the seat beside her, a gift from her Mother. June loomed bright and sunny, but cold with an easterly wind. Arriving at the campsite after a long bus ride, she was greeted like a lost daughter by the French owners who proudly showed her all the improvements they had done during the winter. It appeared that caravans were becoming the ‘in’ thing and Audrey knew they were going to have a busy season. The salty smell of a coastline exposed by a huge spring tide rose up the cliffs and promised a summer of rock-pools, moules-frites, dancing till dawn and happy memories.
Dropping her bag off in her small cramped room, she discovered a postcard from Mary, with a London postmark. She was planning to travel out to meet Audrey in the summer, which meant the two girls could go south together to Médoc if all went well. Mary also hoped to meet a cousin in Bordeaux, who was traveling in Europe that year. Somewhat guardedly, Audrey wondered how another person would fit into the friendship and the forthcoming adventures.
Half an hour later, Audrey strode down to the village to see if she would be serving beer again. She also had a small handful of francs in her hand, and after greeting old friends and arranging her first shift behind the bar for a week later, she anxiously phoned south to the number she had kept carefully in her wallet, hoping beyond hope that ‘her’ house was still for sale.
It was. She stood there, and gently put the phone back on the hook, keenly aware of swallows flitting across the road in the last dregs of the afternoon sun, and she knew, deep inside, that she would buy the house. Her arms prickled with goosebumps and she shuddered with a smile at her superstitiousness.
I hope you have enjoyed the first part of this story; part two will follow next week. Susan x
Our French Oasis 
OMG I was gripped, can’t wait to read more. You are so truly talented, love love loved it.
Thank you so much Jane. I am so happy you enjoyed reading it, it was rather fun to write about places I know so well and link them all together! Have a lovely end to the week, Susan x
Oh I am dropped almost from a dizzy height! I was so engrossed in the story, and your beautiful telling of it, that it came as a shock when you said part two will follow next week!
Just how I feel….please don’t keep us waiting beyond next week. How gripping!
You are so talented, Susan. Just loved this story!!!
Hi Anne, I promise I won’t keep you waiting beyond next week and thank you so much, it is so encouraging to hear such wonderful comments, I really do appreciate it. Susan x
Hi, thank you so much. If I had put the entire story in one post it might have been too long and too boring! So I thought split it up at a suitable point. So glad you liked it. Susan x
I truly enjoyed reading your story I am waiting for the remainder. Wonderful
Hi Marilyn, thank you so much, so happy you enjoyed it. Susan x
ARGGGG!! I didn’t want it to end yet
Hi Jeanne, so glad you enjoyed it! But it isn’t over, part two next week! Susan x
Oh no. I have to wait for the ending. Lovely story
Hi Sharon, thank you so much, all the best things in life are worth waiting for! Or at least I hope that is the case, in this case! Susan x
Absolutely beautiful. You truely have a gift. Please publish your stories, they need to be shared even more.
Can’t wait for next week.
Thanks so much Nadia, you are too kind! I am so happy that everyone is really enjoying reading this, it was such fun to write. Susan x
Goodness me, I was there every step of the way – looking forward to Part 2. x
Hi Petrina, so happy you enjoyed it, and I am sure you can imagine the campsite on the coast in Brittany, as you are there in the department. Susan x
Wow, I am convinced you are an author already. I agree with Nadia’s comment above, you need to publish these for the world to read – if you are not already an author then you are a great unknown talent waiting to be discovered!
Hi Lisa, thank you so much, No I am not an author, just someone who loves writing and sharing everything on the blog and then every now and then I dream up a story and think I have to share that too! Susan x
Then we are the lucky ones, those of us who have found you and follow you, your writing means so much to so many of us judging by the comments.
Thank you so much Lisa, I am the lucky one to have so many fabulous loyal readers, it means so much to me. Susan x
Stories of flesh and blood struggling and embracing the stone, the very ground we walk on, are refreshing reminders that we are made of earth. It’s in our DNA. Lovely story.
Hi Anita, it is a total reminder of what we are made of and what we are capable of. So glad you enjoyed it. Susan x
Can’t wait for part 2!
Thanks so much, Susan x
Susan, what a lovely story ~ can’t wait for Part 2!!
Thank you Elaine, next week I promise! Susan x
I knew there was a writer hidden away, the way you write your weekly post is a must for a story or book to be published, you have a wonderful way with words. I wondered if you were writing about yourself when you were young, maybe a few experiences slip in ?
Look forward to part 2.
Thank you so much Barbara I really do appreciate it. No not writing about myself at all actually, I have never been camping! And I travelled to India rather than France! But,my husband is from the Channel Islands and two of our children were born in Guernsey. WE have also taken a friend’s boat from Guernsey across to France on many occasions and we know Brittany and the Pyrenees well, so part of it was from things I know. I dreamt it all up in the shower one morning! A great place to think!!! Susan x
Love it. Waiting for next chapter. I could not stop reading it
Hi Maude, thank you so much, I am so glad you have enjoyed it and thank you for taking the time to let me know, so very much appreciated, Susan x
Darn – I was so engrossed and felt I was on the little lane looking at her cottage when the story ended! Am waiting with baited breath for the next installment. Amazing how such a simple story line can hold you enthralled. Fabulous work.
Hi Joan, thank you so very much. Sometimes the simple things I find are often the best, I dreamt this up in the shower! Susan x
Lovely story, so nice as we plan to return to our tiny house for the summer
in the Medoc.
Hi Carl, thank you so much and I hope you have a wonderful time in Medoc this summer, a beautiful area, enjoy! Susan x
A wonderful read, Susan. I just know it’s going to have a happy ending for Susan. With such determination and tenacity, she can’t go wrong. I really love the muted pastel colours in your first photo. 🙂
Of course, I meant to say ” for Audrey”. 🙂
It’s okay I knew what you meant!!! Susan x
Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed reading it, she. Is a brave young girl that’s for sure. I loved the little cottage in the first photo, I knew the moment I saw it that it was the perfect cottage for the story! Susan x
So enjoyed the 1st part and will be very ready to read part 2. Never like the weeks to pass quickly but this will be one to pass at a quicker pace.
Oh thank you so much. I agree though, never want the weeks to pass too quickly, especially now that it is summer, I want it to slow down so we can enjoy it, so why oh why do the days seem to fly by at a faster pace than ever? Enjoy the rest of the week, Susan x
How good, I’m waiting for the next part!!!
Hi Carolyn, thank you so much, so glad you enjoyed it. Susan x
You are so talented! I loved it.
Thank you, thank you, thank you xxx
If only we had all lived the life of Audrey, she is doing so wonderfully for herself! Beautifully written Susan.
Thank you so much Lily. She is such a tough young girl, she’s only a fictional character I dreamt up whilst in the shower but I still admire her! Susan x
I am not sure I can wait another week to read Part 2. Absolutely loved it! So wonderfully written. Anxiously awaiting to see what happens next. I might have to ask for a sneak peak.
Ha ha Debra, but you will have to wait until next week, I couldn’t leak any secret information!!! Susan x
Sneak peek for me too, please – though at a push I can wait. This is brilliant. Brightened my drizzly London day a lot.
Thanks Simon, sorry no sneak peaks allowed! But not long to wait, I hope it will be worthwhile! Susan x
Charming. Looking forward to part 2. Will that be the end or one of many more parts to come?
Hi Patricia, I am still just going through editing the final part, I cannot decide whether to make it three parts or just two, but most likely just two, but I am concerned it may be a bit long! Susan x
Everyone else has said it all beautifully…so wonderful Susan.
Ali xx
Thank you so much Ali, it was great fun to write, as I think you probably have realised, I love doing this! Susan x
Your stories are always so wonderful to fall into! I can’t wait till next week to see where we are going. Thank you for the highlight of my week.
Hi Vicki, thank you so very much, I am so glad you enjoyed it, it was great fun to write and to share it with everyone. Have a wonderful end to the week, Susan x
I can’t wait for the next part! I love your short stories just as much as the blogs, a book is definitely in order haha.
Hi Helen, thank you so very much, I am so glad you enjoyed it, it was rather fun to write something a little different. Susan x
I can see the book now…short stories, lovely watercolor paintings. So charming!
Hi Debra, you are so sweet, I can’t paint at all, so the art would have to come from our daughters, a real family affair! Susan x
love love love it! Audrey better buy that cottage!
Hi Suzana, thank you so much, so glad you enjoyed it, stay tuned for next week!!! Susan x
Loved this story Susan. Can’t wait to read part 2. Pam
Sent from my iPhone
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Hi Pam, thank you so very much, so happy you enjoyed it, have a lovely end to the week, Susan x
do we really have to wait another week……..?
ceci
Hi Ceci, I am sorry but we do! But all good things in life are worth waiting for, so they say! Have a lovely end to the week, Susan x
Lovely. And great pics too
Thanks so much Pauline, glad you enjoyed it, Susan x
I am enjoying this story very much, Susan. You write simply but evocatively, which is so difficult for a writer and so rewarding for her reader. If Audrey ends up buying her tiny house, you could turn this into a series about the life she creates and lives there and her adventures around the world as she travels periodically. What a vehicle for the stories you could come forth with! In any case, well done, Susan, and thank you!
Thank you so much Leslie. I agree I could make it go on and on, but in truth I dreamt it up simply whilst in the shower, but I do love your ideas, even if not with this story, you have given me something to think about for another one, thank you! Susan x
Most of my best and most creative ideas come when I am in the shower. Just saying…. XOXO
Roddy says exactly the same too! Once the ideas start flowing I can easily drain an entire tank of water just thinking!!! Xx
Oh, can’t wait…….
So glad you enjoyed it Peta, it was great fun to write, have a lovely weekend, Susan x
Love it Susan! Wish I was Audrey!!
By the way – I bought France Today magazine for the first time when in the supermarket yesterday and lo and behold there you were inside!! As it was not called Living France, I hadn’t expected to see you there! I’m liking the articles and beautiful photos and it will help me plan our drive trip to Frsnce in a year or two.
Hi Marian, thank you so much, so glad you enjoyed it. I had quite forgotten about the article in France Today, I wrote it several months ago, so much seems to have happened since then! Well at least I know it has been published!!! Thank you, I shall, no doubt, get a copy in the mail tomorrow or Monday! Have a fabulous weekend, Susan x
Ah, the good old days when it was safe to hitch and beer cost a shilling. Audrey sounds as if she has a plan brewing – looking forward to the next bit. My missus really enjoyed this too, Susan. You should put this, the two Cole Family stories and a few more in an envelope and find a publisher. It should be required holiday reading around a pool somewhere in with a cold pastis to hand and a bowl of olives.
Thank you so much Phil, I am so glad both you and your wife enjoyed it, I get such fun writing all of these stories and I am so grateful that everyone likes to read them! Have a lovely weekend, hope the sun manages to make an appearance in the UK! Susan x
Bravo et merci à vous Susan de prendre du temps à imaginer cette belle histoire pour notre plus grand plaisir. Votre technique d’ une aventure à 2 épisodes est la meilleure pour fidéliser et passionner vos lecteurs ! En alternant reportages de votre vie familiale et textes de fiction , vous avez trouvé la bonne recette pour passionner vos followers ( de plus en plus nombreux on dirait …).Comme idée de scénario, je vous propose d’ écrire les aventures de Bentley et Evie luttant contre Monsieur Renard pour protéger leurs amis coq et poules ( donc une vraie fiction pour Evie…) et pourchassant Madame Taupe pour sauver le jardin familial. Avec votre talent d’ écriture cela devrait être très amusant à lire./ Congratulations and thanks Susan to spend time to imagine this interesting story for our pleasure. Your skill to make a text in two parts is the best to retain and passionnate your reader! By alterning family life reports and fiction writing you find out a good balance to fascinate your followers ( in an increasingly numbers it seems…). As new idea of scenario , I suggest you writing the adventures of Bentley and Evie fighting against Mister Fox to protect rooster and chickens ( a real fiction story for Evie indeed …) and chasing Madam Mole to save the family garden. With your talent of writing it would be a very funny reading. Hope you have a lovely and sunny week-end . Philippe
I am not sure why this came through with two different names, anyway I have replied to the one above!!!
Bravo et merci Susan de prendre du temps à imaginer cette belle histoire pour notre plaisir. Votre technique d’ une aventure à 2 épisodes est la meilleure pour fidéliser et passionner vos lecteurs. En alternant reportages de votre vie familiale et textes de fiction, vous avez trouvé la bonne recette pour passionner vos followers! ( de plus en plus nombreux il semble… ). Comme idée de scénario, je vous propose d’ écrire les aventures de Bentley et Evie luttant contre Monsieur Renard pour protéger leurs amis coq et poules ( donc une vraie fiction pour Evie… ) et pourchassant Madame Taupe pour sauver le jardin familial. Avec votre talent d’ écriture cela devrait être amusant à lire! // Congratulations and thanks Susan to spend time to imagine this interesting story for our pleasure. Your skill to make a text in two parts is the best to retain and passionate your readers. By alterning family life reports and fiction writing, you find out a good balance to fascinate your followers ( in an increasingly numbers it seems…).As new idea of scenario, I suggest you writing the adventures od Bentley and Evie fighting against Mister Fox to protect rooster and chickens ( a real fiction for Evie indeed …) and chasing Madam Mole to save the family garden. With your storytelling talent, it would be a very funny reading! Hope you have a lovely and sunny week-end. Philippe
Hi Philippe, I love it, Bentley and Evie fighting Mr Fox, Bentely would be telling Evie what to do and just sitting watching from the sidelines and not doing much himself at all! As for the moles, they continue to be a problem! I am sure there is quite a story there, watch this space! Hopefully a sunny weekend indeed. We have been quite lucky compared to most of the country but it’s still been pretty dismal for June! But the forecast now looks really good. I hope you have a lovely and sunny weekend too. Susan x
If you have a mole problem, you might want to consider getting a dachshund sibling for Bentley and Evie. Our long-haired dachshund, Bob, has kept our large garden mole-free for the 9 gardening seasons he has been with us, even though the rest of the neighborhood is full of mole mounds. Best of all is that Bob does not catch and kill the moles. I assume he keeps them away by burrowing deep into any mole hole and filling it with his scent.
Hi Leslie, Bob sounds like such a fantastic character. You know if I had known this before we got Evie, so this time last year we may well have looked for a dachshund for this very reason instead of another Jack Russell. Evie digs for them but she certainly doesn’t scare them away. With such a cool Spring we seem to have more moles than ever this year! Finally, the warm weather seems to have arrived in our little corner of France, we went to the beach for the first time this year today! Hope you have a lovely weekend, Susan X
First let me say that I love this story! I cannot wait to read the next installment. Audrey sounds like a determined young woman and I am sure that she is going to get that house.
Secondly I have not been receiving your posts by mail, is anyone else having this problem?
Have a great weekend.
Thank you so much, I think she is a very determined girl, I admire her even though she is only a fictional character I dreamt up in the shower! I do know of a couple of other people who have told me they have for some bizarre reason stopped getting the emails alerting them to a new blog post. I have no idea why. I will contact WordPress on Monday and speak to them on the help chat line and see what they can do about this and let you know. Have a wonderful weekend, Susan x
You should make this a novel! I loved it. Thank you Susan for writing this wonderful story and sharing it! Can’t wait for next week!
Hi Deborah, thank you so much, I think I shall share part two tomorrow, because I have made it into three parts! So glad you are enjoying this. Susan x
What a delightful story so far. I did not want it to end. You write wonderfully. Thanks for posting this.
Hi Deborah, thank you so very much, I am so glad you enjoyed it, I had so much fun writing it and making it all up. Hope you are having a lovely weekend, Susan x
I was pulled in immediately!! What a talent you have!! Where and how on earth did you have the time to conjure up this treasure??!!
I feel so drawn in and close to the characters already…..I also remembered how it felt to be Audrey’s age with her dreams in place and moving towards fulfillment.
I cannot wait to read on!!
I hope it is a very very long one!!!
Hi Jamie, I conjured this up in the shower one morning! I have to admit I did stay in there a little longer than usual and drained an entire tank of hot water! Lots more to come next week, Susan x
Well this Audrey was completely captured by your story. Can’t wait to read more. Well done!
I never imagined an Audrey would read the story! So happy you are enjoying it, what fun, is it anything like your life when you were 20? Susan x