Two weeks offline. Oddly enough, the only pangs I felt for those fourteen days were thanks to having sent an absurd amount of work the night before leaving (Well- about four hours before leaving, if you want to be accurate) and not being able to check that it had arrived safely. Thankfully, it all seems to have worked out fine, and the holiday turned out to be very good fun. Yes, being enclosed with members of your family (and particularly when young children are involved) can sometimes make the experience rather an up and down one, but on the whole it was very good fun, an excellent break, and a chance to collect some happy memories of Brittany to wipe away the slightly horrible ones accumulated on a school camp in 1986. We were right in the centre of Brittany, in a tiny hamlet called Lustryn and near to a small town called Rostren, and much entertainment was had. We went go-karting, visited an aquarium, went on plenty of walks and spent vast amounts of time lying around doing nothing, watching movies or playing computer games (I managed to complete the official tie-in game from Peter Jackson’s King Kong, and got re-addicted to Wipeout Fusion). About the only downside was the epic journey- fourteen hours, most of which was spent in the back of a car, and which left me somewhat frazzled and unable to think once I got in last night.

So, in the words of Sam Gamgee, I’m back. More importantly, I feel like the two weeks away have given me a little perspective, as well as giving me the chance to work properly on the book. All I need now is some time, and I think I know how to get the damn thing finished. At the moment, my main priorities are getting unpacked, doing the washing, tidying things up, and working my way through the gargantuan amounts of e-mail I’ve ended up with.

Plenty to do…