ALL INCLUSIVE
Do the friendships you make on holiday have anything to do with real life? It might be sensible to hope that they don't. For the last few years, Beth and Ned have gone to the same Caribbean island to the same luxury spa hotel. There they meet the same crowd, and take up where they left off last time. Real life, home life, family life, are all safely left behind.
Except this year. This year, home problems have somehow tagged along for the ride. Ned has been playing away -_ a bit of a drunken fling, that's all, nothing to worry about, Beth thinks. But although they have put it all behind them, what Beth doesn't know is that Ned's fling was with the female half of one of the couples they are holidaying with. To make matters worse, Beth has insisted on bringing along their sixteen-year-old daughter Delilah, who's been ill and needs rest and sunshine. Not so ill, however, that she can't look around for some entertainment...
I was a bit nervous writing this one. For about six years, until Hurricane Ivan completely devastated the island, we took a late November break at a hotel on Grenada, meeting up with the same crowd of returners each year. I always thought there was a book about the place just waiting to be written but I did worry that those lovely friends would try to identify themselves in the characters. They shouldn't - our lot are all a lot less appallingly behaved than these fictional folk, and although there are elements of the place they'll recognize, I hope I'll be able to go back, once the hotel is rebuilt, without getting beaten up.