Over the Sea to Skye

It seems like a lifetime ago but it’s only ten days since we returned from an amazing trip to the Isle of Skye. Much more on that later, but first I want to thank everyone who left suggestions in the comments on my previous blog for things to do in my seventieth year. 

There were some great ideas some of which will definitely be incorporated into my list of 70 things to do or achieve in my 70^th year on planet earth. I’ve already been in touch with the winner, Diane and her haul of all twelve of my novels personalised and signed should have arrived by now, so she has quite a lot of reading material for the next few weeks or months depending on her reading speed. 

Diane’s suggestion was a flight in a Spitfire aircraft as a nod to my dad who was ground crew in the RAF and used to repair Spitfires that had been damaged during the air battles in World War 2. Here’s the weird thing; I had no idea where in the UK Diane was located until after she had been selected as the winner. It turns out she lives in the place that Dad’s family was evacuated to during the early part of the war. You might call it serendipity.  

I also emailed everyone who left a comment with the offer of a copy of Alice in Theatreland and a dozen of those went in the post today. I will be compiling the list of seventy things for my next blog. 

Talking of serendipity, I’ve been thinking about visiting the Isle of Skye where my mum and dad lived for several years from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, since Mum died. It’s hard to believe that it’s six months to the day since Mum died. I took some time off QVC and had been looking at properties to rent but having left it late to book there wasn’t much availability. Ten days before my leave was due to start, I had another look on Airbnb and a beautiful cottage that I hadn’t seen before popped up.

I booked it there and then and the owner got straight back to me saying that they had had a cancellation for my dates that morning! It was obviously meant to be.

I wanted to travel by road as that was the way I’d usually travelled when I visited Mum and Dad in Skye. It’s an eleven-to-twelve-hour journey depending on traffic, so we planned to split the journey with an overnight stay in both directions. I was on air at QVC on the Friday we were heading up north so we didn’t set off until after 7pm and then there was an accident on the M6 which closed a segment of the motorway meaning we reached our hotel near Preston shortly before midnight. Ahead of us the following day lay another eight hours of driving but neither of us found the thought of it daunting. 

It was hot and sunny for the whole drive. I’d forgotten just how spectacularly beautiful the scenery is. The lochs with people sitting on the ‘beaches’ enjoying the weather, in the shadows of towering mountains and lush green hills. My husband, Chris was particularly enamoured with Callander which is not far from Bridge of Allan where my sister lived while her late husband was at Stirling University.  

We drove through Glencoe which I can remember doing many times in my little Austin Healey Sprite in the depths of a Scottish winter. I would only have been nineteen at the time and was usually travelling solo. I recounted to Chris the time I had rounded a bend in the road and come face to face with a stag. Fortunately, I managed to stop before making contact as I think I might have come off worse than the stag in a collision.

When my parents lived on Skye, the only way onto the island was by ferry. We always used the one at Kyle of Lochalsh which is where the bridge is now located so the experience was not too dissimilar. I felt quite emotional on the drive from the bridge up to Portree, the main town on the island as I did the following day when we went to see Mum and Dad’s old cottage.

Standing there looking down the fields from the cottage towards the sea with the Scottish mainland in the distance seemed both familiar and yet strange. It was my parents’ home after we children had flown the nest, rather than my childhood home although I did spend months at a time there with them between my dancing jobs. The view from the kitchen, which my dad built was the view I borrowed for Eva’s house in my latest book, Just Like Her Mother.

Here’s another strange coincidence. We decided to revisit Mum and Dad’s former home on the last day of our holiday. There was a van parked in front of the house and as we were taking photographs, we thought we should explain ourselves to the man who was obviously doing some kind of maintenance work on the property. I told him that my dad had built the kitchen extension around fifty years ago and he said, ‘Well that’s funny, because I’m here replacing the kitchen window.’ 

So, Skye was a trip down memory lane but was also intended as a complete break from work at QVC and also anything book related apart from taking photographs in the gorgeous surroundings. 

However, my husband had other ideas. He suggested going into the main bookshop in Portree and asking them if we could leave a signed copy of Just Like Her Mother for a customer to come in and claim after me posting on my Instagram. Donald senior, who we initially asked was up for it after checking the title on his computer. A couple of days later we popped back to the shop, Carmina Gadelica to drop the book in and met one of his sons, also Donald but goes by the nickname Dol. 

As an aside, I’m mentioning this because it came up as a query during one of the editing stages of my book. I had two characters with the name Donald, Stuart’s father and the funeral director. I do explain my reasons in the book, but my editor was doing her job to query it. Donald senior has another son also called Donald. It’s a tradition I believe. Dol very kindly said they would order some copies of my other books in for the shop, so if you’re ever in Portree do drop into Carmina Gadelica and take a photo if you spot them on the shelves. 

Chris also emailed Radio Skye and asked them if they would like to do an interview with me as my parents used to be locals and part of Just Like Her Mother was set there. It was a joy to spend close to an hour chatting to David Goldring, the presenter about everything from my early career in TV, through my years at QVC and my writing. To be honest, he seemed to be most interested in which episode of Dr Who I appeared in. I can’t even remember which Dr it was, let alone the episode!

We did however have plenty of time for R & R and as previously mentioned the weather was mostly glorious. We discovered this beautiful ‘pool’ on our first full day. I’m not going to divulge its whereabouts as it was a chance find and is a closely guarded secret by Skye residents apparently. Looks amazing, but it was icy cold despite the air temperature being in the high 20s.

We also found Coral Beach. From a distance it looks like powdery white sand but is a little ‘grainier’ when you get closer. It was still beautiful though and the water was warm enough for a paddle.

The Stein Inn was probably Chris’s favourite discovery. Situated on a no through road below Waternish, it was lovely to sit enjoying locally brewed Skye lager in the early evening sunshine with a view to die for.

The cottage was the perfect place to unwind at the end of each day although we did treat ourselves to a pizza at Gasta in Portree which I can highly recommend, and also an evening meal at The Skeabost House Hotel. The hotel was about a three-minute drive from Prabost Cottage where we were staying which I didn’t know when I booked it. Another ‘coincidence’ as my dad had worked occasional shifts at the Skeabost House Hotel as a bartender along with his job working for the council building picnic areas.

I’ve been struggling to write since losing Mum six months ago, but Skye was the reset I needed. Hopefully, the words will start to flow on book thirteen.

I’m sure Jennifer, my editor at Bookouture is also hoping the words will start to flow. It was so lovely to meet up with her at the Bookouture Author’s Summer Party recently. It was a different venue from the past three or four years and made a nice change. The staircase of the St Pancras Hotel was immortalised by the Spice Girls in their promotional video for ‘Wannabe’. Some of the authors got into the spirit of the former girl group and posed on the staircase – I was too busy nattering and catching up with people who I only see in person at the annual get together. I’m also completely rubbish at taking photos at these events – just the one this year!

Jennifer has been keeping me up to date with sales of Just Like Her Mother and I’m delighted to say she is still doing really well in America, top 40 in her three subcategories and consistently in the top 2000 overall since publication over three months ago. She was a bit of a slow burner, but we all know the story of the tortoise and the hare and well over two million KU pages read is very pleasing! Thanks so much if you’ve read and reviewed, she already has more ratings/reviews than My Daughter’s Lies which was released in May 2024. I would still describe her as a bit of a Marmite book though. Those who can relate to Lexi’s situation seem to really love it, but it’s not for everyone.

The Bookouture party was my second trip up to the heart of London in the space of a fortnight. A week after my birthday, my friend and colleague at QVC, Debbie Flint had arranged for a theatre trip to see Moulin Rouge, along with former colleague Ali Keenan and Lorna Ko, an avid supporter of my books. I need to own up that I wasn’t a huge fan of the film, but I fancied a night out with the girls! 

Well, to say that it exceeded my expectations on every level is an understatement! I absolutely LOVED it and would happily go and see it again. The utilisation of lyrics from well-known songs was a brilliant idea and the execution by the cast and the orchestra was first rate. I can highly recommend if you don’t mind ‘a bit raunchy’!

Before the show, we met for early dinner at the Compton Brasserie. It was a 3-course menu with a glass of prosecco for a very reasonable price. Set menus can be tricky for a vegetarian but the veggie option was delicious. 

It must have been mentioned at some point that we were celebrating my birthday (albeit a week late) because they stuck a sparkler in my dessert and sang me Happy Birthday – not embarrassing at all. It was a lovely evening out and a theatre trip to tick off the seven I’m planning as part of my ‘list of things to do in my 70^th year’.

Funnily enough, a couple of you suggested visiting Skye/The Hebrides in my seventieth year so that is already ticked off my list. There was the added bonus of staying overnight with my niece Rachel and her family in Renfrewshire to break our journey on the way home. One of my other nieces, Becky lives close by too, so it was lovely to see them in happier circumstances than when we were last all together at Mum’s funeral.

So, I’m feeling refreshed and brimming with ideas after our time away on the stunningly beautiful Isle of Skye. It was definitely calling my name.

And one final coincidence before I close. Glencoe and Glen Etive were the locations for the Scottish scenes in the Bond film, Skyfall… it was on ITV last Saturday evening so of course we watched it! 

Much love until next time

Julia xx