I’ve been indulging in a spot of daylight robbery today. I used to work for an innovation company that had a favourite mantra “Steal with glee” – the idea being that you should look for inspiration anywhere and everywhere and beg, borrow and steal your ideas – adapting and reapplying them to different problems and situations.

My first act of theft was from my old Eastbourne schoolmate, Annette, who now lives in Florida. Another schoolmate, Jenn, posted a fabulous photo of the sea where the River Cuckmere flows out, looking towards the Seven Sisters and Belle Tout lighthouse, commenting that it reminded her of Annette’s description of the “grey-green chalky sea colour” that so characterised the coast there. With Annette’s permission I’ve used the description in the Eastbourne section of the book. It’s so true as the coastline here is being eroded and the chalky residue is heavily present in the sea, giving it a quite unique colour.

My other smash and grab raid was on a house. I decided to steal the house we went to for the last day’s shoot for Make it and Mend it. I wrote about it here. The house was a flat-pack prefabricated tin tabernacle designed in Victorian times for shipment to the colonies. So I’ve lifted it lock stock and barrel from Sherborne in Dorset and planted it in my imaginary town of Mudoorayam in Travancore (as Kerala was then).

Talking of Make it and Mend it, we received some sample page spreads from the publisher for the new book (out in October this year). It’s looking fan-bloody-tastic. Can’t wait for it to hit the bookshops.

Now almost 13k words in the bag. Rock ‘n roll!