Dear friends, 

This week I walked out to a waterfall on the Glaze Brook on Dartmoor. It is the most enchanted place, where a cascade crashes down into an oval pool, surrounded by oak and beech trees. William Crossing, in his famous Guide to Dartmoor, writes: "This is the Wishing Pool, and it is said that those who leap across it, and while doing so loudly express a wish, will obtain what they desire." There is the ruin of a blowing house there, where miners used to smelt tin. As I stood there alone in the dreary rain it was hard to imagine it centuries ago, a fiery and ferocious hive of activity as men worked away by the river. 

I last visited the waterfall in 2011. Felix was 14 and he is there in one of the pictures, sitting quietly in the background on the bank wearing a grey bobble hat, watching the female adults in the party cavort in the pool (as you do in January, obvs).  He never was a fan of cold water. 

We've published another extract today, in which I remember various camping trips to East Prawle, Devon's most southerly village.  You can read it on the website under PROJECT SYNOPSIS. 

Thank you again for your support, it means a great deal. 

Sophie