It’s been an incredibly busy week and I’ve managed to spend a good deal of it away from the desk which is always a bit of a treat.  On Tuesday, I met up with writer pal, Sam Mills, in Notting Hill where we had a bit of a location tour – finding the travel bookshop which inspired the one in the Richard Curtis film as well as posing outside the famous blue door which is now black and a bit scruffy!

Then, on Wednesday, I had the pleasure of attending Compassion in World Farming’s ‘Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards’ ceremony which took place at the ‘Temple’ in the Freemason’s Hall in London – an incredible room full of symbols straight out of a Dan Brown novel.  And there was a wonderful moment when Ben and Jerry’s accepted their award and came in accompanied by a pantomime cow!

Finally, on Thursday night, it was the HarperCollins Summer Party which was held at the Orangery in Kensington Palace – a stunningly romantic venue.  It’s always lovely to meet fellow authors and do a bit of star-spotting too and I was completely over the moon to meet  a real Jane Austen hero – actor, Dan Stevens, who played Edward Ferrars in the recent Andrew Davies adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.