Truly, Madly, Deeply. Romantic Novelist's Association

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      Elizabeth Buchan

      ELIZABETH BUCHAN began her career as a blurb writer at Penguin Books and moved on to become a fiction editor at Random House before leaving to write full time. Her novels include Light of the Moon and the prize-winning Consider the Lily –reviewed in the Independent as ‘a gorgeously well written tale: funny, sad and sophisticated’. A subsequent novel, Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman, became an international bestseller and was made into a CBS Primetime Drama. This was followed by several other novels, including The Second Wife, Separate Beds and Daughters. She has just finished a novel about SOE agents operating in Denmark during the World War II.

      Elizabeth Buchan’s short stories are broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and published in magazines. She reviews for the Sunday Times, has chaired the Betty Trask and Desmond Elliot literary prizes, and has been a judge for the Whitbread (now Costa) awards. She is a past Chairman of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, and is currently a patron of the Guildford Book Festival and The National Academy of Writing.

       The Art Of Travel

      Polly consults the ferry timetable. Having puzzled over it many times during the past seven years, she knows its little ways.

      Buried in its print, is the key to the vessels which skim over the sunlit Greek seas and plough through the stormy ones. And, yes, there is one due to sail from Piraeus at 11.30 the following morning. This gives Polly plenty of time to arrive at the port and to find a coffee and sandwich. She is sometimes sea-sick and copes better being so on a full stomach.

      Dan used to tease her about that.

      In Athens, she checks in at her usual hotel –discovered quite early on in her travels. It is cheap and central and nobody bothers about her there. In her room there are the familiar blue-and-white striped ticking window blinds and the matching bedspread.

      The mirror is new though, and Polly peers into it. She has left London in a rush –working in the office until the very last-minute, which meant there had been no time for leisurely preparation. She doesn’t much care what she looks like but others do. If you’re travelling on your own, it’s best to make an effort.

      She phones Nico at the salon.

      ‘Ah Polly, Polly. Please come at once.’

      Nico owns a chain of hairdressing salons but is always to be found in the one near Avidi Square. He is waiting for her when she walks in.

      ‘Hallo beautiful Polly,’ he says in his mixture of Greek and English. ‘Very, very good to see you.’

      Polly replies in a similar mixture of language–only, in her case as she often teases him, her Greek improves each year.

      Nico sits her down and wraps her up in a gown. ‘Your hair is good.’ Their eyes meet in the mirror. ‘You have kept it well.’

      She has. She has. Shoulder length and still blonde with touches of honey and toffee, Dan loved her hair.

      Nico examines a lock in a professional manner. ‘A small trim?’

      ‘Please.’

      He cuts it wet and gives Polly his news. The fifth grandchild arrived. The family is well. Times are hard.

      He knows that Polly will not respond with similar information. Polly’s lack of family always shocks him.

      The scissors emit a faintly metallic sound and, despite herself, the hairs on the back of Polly’s neck rise.

      No, she lectures herself.

      ‘And where are going to this time, Polly?’

      ‘Skopolos.’

      Nico cuts a meticulous half inch of hair across her back. He knows that, after his ministrations, Polly is unlikely to visit a hairdresser for weeks СКАЧАТЬ