mns  2007-05-09 12:47   

Last month, I went to Dublin for a meeting, and while there, arranged to take a look at my house. It is rented to five young men. Everyone I know said I was mad to take five young men in; but I had a feeling that they would be the perfect tenants.

I wanted someone to really enjoy the house and garden, to lie out on the hammock between the trees at the end of the grass, to read the books I’d left on the shelves and drink the drinks I had left in the cupboards.
Any other tenants would have asked me to clear the place out, remove my pictures and books and all the bits of my past life. But these five were happy to take it as it was. A win win situation, I would say.

Anyway, I was right. My tenants are five of the nicest men you could hope to meet. The five of them had taken the day off work, and had tea and biscuits laid out; it was all incredibly reassuring as I had – I must admit – been a little nervous.

I did however get one surprise, and that was when I took a look in my old bedroom. It is, to all intents and purposes, still the same. Except for one small addition – no, no, I think I mean two LARGE additions. Lucy and Gabriel are living in my bedroom.

Lucy and Gabriel are two long, long, yellow snakes who are going to breed (in my bedroom!!!). I find myself laughing every time I think of that moment when I looked at my old shoe cabinet and thought, ‘What is that on top of it?’ I peered a little closer, and then a little closer and then I nearly jumped out of my skin.

The problem is, these men are so nice, with their kind welcome, their tea and biscuits, and next thing I knew I was stroking Lucy and chatting to Gabriel as he wound his way around my neck with his little tongue flicking in and out. I had handled a snake once as a child, but I had forgotten how they feel. They are so cold. Their scales are smooth in an odd way, their texture weird; they have a strange dryness to them, and I have to say that despite my initial shock/horror/terror I really like them. I keep thinking about them and their undulating coils, and their strange corn yellow colour, and the cold cold coldness of them as they moved across my arm.

My fourth book, Searching for Home, is out on CD and on audio cassette and available from libraries. It arrived in the post this morning – beautifully packaged with a lovely wistful cover. I have never been too keen on my own voice so have not yet tried listening to it. But, regardless, Oakhill Publishing has done a wonderful job with it.

Last weekend JC and I went to play bridge in the Cwmbran Congress (in Wales), teaming up with friends I had originally met in Malta. One of them, Stephen Cashmore, lives in Scotland and the other, Simon Gottschalk, in Wales – so the four of us were like a very united British Isles. We came second after a close battle at the end. A great weekend – so much so that we have lined up others.