A few months ago, I wrote in these pages that I had embarked upon a novel. Well, last night, it reached 80,000 words – the minimum length of a novel as we understand it (the maximum seems to be 120,000 words, so I have some scope for expansion). I’ve got to the end of the plot, and I’m now embroidering the sub-plots, adding some ‘local colour’ around some of the locations – that sort of thing. The last piece to be put in place will be derived from a trip to Turkey, which we are planning to take in September. Then it will go to my lovely agent, Anna Power, for her comments and edits.  I really really hope somebody will like it enough to publish it. You never know.

And the characters in the picture above, who reside in the Museum of the Middle Ages, in Paris? Who are they? They feature in my story.

Meanwhile, I have to think of a subject for a second novel. Or, alternatively, I have to apply for some proper jobs.