On being Nineteen in Sicily
Saturday 16th February
That’s me aged nineteen in Sicily. There’s no filter applied to make me look all vintage. That’s your genuine 80s photography!
I was there visiting my best friend for the summer. After we left school, I went uni and she went to Sicily to work as a nanny, and as soon as my first year exams finished I leapt on a plane and went to visit her.
The trip made a lasting impression on the young me. For a start, I’d never been anywhere hot before, having stumbled no further south than northern Brittany with my parents. It was a surprise that it stayed warm in the evenings. I mean, it occasionally does that in the north of England but not that often. I didn’t even need a coat!
I remember being struck by three things on that first trip. 1. There were palm trees. I thought you only got palm trees in the Tropics. (I’d never been to Torquay.) 2. It was sunny every day. This was a real revelation. I couldn’t understand why members of the Sicilian household were not outside all the time. Sometimes they actively choose to stay indoors despite the sun cracking the flags. Can you imagine?! Then they explained. There really was no need to race out the moment the sun showed his face. He wasn’t going anywhere. The sun shone there every day.
And finally, thing 3 - when you put your towel down on the beach there was no need to keep moving it to avoid the incoming tide. (I know! Bless me. I hadn’t travelled much.)
Anyway, fun though this wander into my teenage years might be, there is a reason for me thinking about it this week. Locations! As I mentioned in Saturday Chat last week, I’m currently ‘filling my creative well’ in preparation for starting to write my eleventh published novel. (There are loads of unpublished ones too but that’s for a different day.) So, as well as absorbing as much as I can from the universe, I’m also thinking about my own tiny little part of it in the shape of the forthcoming story, and setting is an important part of that.
And that’s where Sicily comes in. I’m going to set part of the book there and in the 1980s so that it reflects my own experiences. So far so good.
But I also need an English location for the contemporary parts of the novel. In the past, I’ve put my characters in places I wanted to visit. For example, Reluctantly Home is set in Southwold in Suffolk and Where the Story Starts explores the coast around Whitley Bay. It’s important that the place matches the story and if you read the books I hope you can see why I picked the settings. My most recent book, In a Single Moment ( which is currently having a moment at the top of both the Kindle and Amazon overall chart) is set very firmly in Lincoln because the size and geography of that city so suited what I was trying to say.
This new germ of a story has not yet found a home. I have various towns in mind and will have to do some visiting over the coming weeks so that I can make my final choice. But Sicily is certain, not least because this time next week I’ll actually be there researching my little head off.
The book is due to be published in Autumn 2025 but I’m sure the details will seep out so if you’re interested in how I bring the seed of my idea to the light then keep watching this space!
Have a great week. See you next week from sunny Sicily.