I was inspired by a photo a friend sent to me of a Ferrari, in all its glorious red sporty shininess, parked outside a shop somewhere in Surrey. It struck me as a sleek bit of unnecessary luxury, and it was open-topped and unoccupied.

I’m no thief, but anyone could have jumped in it and gone for a ride.

Imagine!

Now there’s a story.

I’d been thinking of writing a sequel to The Vintage Village Bake Off. So many people had asked me to. Partly because they loved the seaside setting, the fictional village of Millbrook, not far from Dawlish in Devon. Partly because they loved Robert, the unlikely septuagenarian sex symbol that women flocked to because they loved his bakes. And – why not – because there were so many delicious cakes in the story.

Of course I put them all together. Seaside. Cakes. A Ferrari. What can go wrong?

And so came the story of Bronagh and Sadie. You remember Robert has two sisters, Hattie and Bunty. And Bunty is married to Sean from Ballycotton in County Mayo. (My mother’s family were from County Mayo. It’s a beautiful place.)  Sean’s mother is Sadie and her sister-in-law is Bronagh, both in their eighties, both widows. Both neighbours and lifelong friends.

So, the story goes: Bronagh and Sadie and their family spend an evening in The Hole in the Wall in Ballycotton, where the landlord is running a bake-off for a Christmas charity, and they enter their awful bakes. One thing leads to another and Partlan, a local officer in the Garda, is hit with a piece of flying Guinness cake.

Sadie and Bronagh need to escape quickly. And what better way to escape than by borrowing their wonderful grandson’s car? (You’ll meet the adorable Rory in the book…) He owns a gleaming red Ferrari, conveniently parked outside the pub, with the keys in the ignition.

So they set off like Thelma and Louise into the night, calling in briefly at Dublin to cause more mayhem, then going to England via Wales and finally ending up in Millbrook two weeks before Christmas.

This is another book dedicated to my mother, who wasn’t one to miss out on the craic. She’d have been the Bronagh in this story, to a tee.

Then the opportunity came to make a small film. I have a great film-making friend, Ivor, who’s a genius with a camera and an editing suite, and we took off with his partner Jane and big G to the Haynes Motor Museum. The staff were so kind. They lent us a Ferrari to film in and around, with our green screen and costumes. (Huge thanks to Ella and Allan.)

We had a whale of a time, and afterwards Ivor worked his talented socks off in the editing suite and came up with a film you’ll see on December 6^th on social media. I got to play Bronagh; Jane was Sadie, Big G was Partlan and Ivor was a disappointed man in the pub.

Look out for it.

It was great fun to make and I hope you’ll enjoy watching Jane and me as two Thelma-and -Louise-like ladies in hats and a Ferrari having more fun than we should.

Huge thanks to Ive – Deep Studios – and Jane. And to Haynes. Which is a great place to visit, by the way

And – just in case you ask – being in a Ferrari isn’t such a big deal. It’s just an ordinary, primitive metal box with wheels.

Until you start the engine. Then… Mmm. That purring sound. That power! I can see why people like it so much.

A small aside – when I was in my twenties, I had a friend who’d only go out with men who owned a car that she’d look good stepping out of. Which was weird.

I’m not sure she got to take a Ferrari out for a drive. But that’s another story for another blog.

Golden Girls on the Run is out on December 6^th. I hope you’ll love reading it as much as I did writing the characters.

And please watch out for the film. Just hearing the music makes me smile.