Home to Roost: Putting Down Roots in Cornwall

This is the third instalment of Tessa Hainsworth's escape from the rat-race with her actor husband to a Cornish seaside town.

Seagulls in the Atticleft Tessa thrilled as Annie, her best friend from London, fell in love and married a local Cornishman. Alas the newlyweds decide to settle out of the county but Tessa and her husband are delighted when a new young family arrive in the village fresh from the city. However what looks such a promising new friendship turns to a nightmare as these are people who think money can buy them acceptance -- and the village is soon in quiet revolt. Tessa finds herself in the thick of it -- and realises that she has grown very strong roots in the community in the two years she has been in Cornwall.

Like so many in the country, she has to think about turning her house into a source of income in the summer months. Having finally got the place up to scratch, she and her family are wondering whether to camp for a couple of months when they are asked to take over a B&B owned by friends of friends. Tessa is bubbly, outgoing - but quite inexperienced at being a landlady. She muddles through only with the generous help of the 'customers' on her postal round.

Written with her usual warmth and good humour, Tessa Hainsworth enchants us again with her stories of life as a newcomer to 'deep' Cornwall and makes us dwell on the true value and meaning of 'home'.