ISLE OF WONDERS

While researching where to set my second novel, I recently rediscovered the Isle of Purbeck. I had first visited as a teenager, spending several summers staying with my best friend and her family in Swanage. They rented a chalet a little way inland and a beach hut just above the sandy bay, and Karen and I whiled away our time sunning ourselves, or when it rained, huddling in the hut hugging mugs of cocoa. Later, when my children were young, I brought them to the beaches near Studland.

Forty years on from my first visit, I was delighted to find that Swanage hadn’t changed all that much: it’s still a traditional English seaside town with pubs, fish and chip shops, and an amusement arcade, where Karen and I used to cruise the slot machines for dropped coins. But now, less interested in the ‘bright lights’ of Swanage and without young children in tow, I wanted to