Breaking Out

Craving adventure? Considering a Life Make-over? Ready to chase that dream that been lurking in your heart for years?

I’ve just returned from a glorious month’s holiday in Europe and I feel inspired! Everywhere I went, I saw examples of people who have broken out, taken risks

Firstly, there is Paul, Comte de la Panouse who was in his early twenties when he decided to set up an African safari at the Chateau du Thoiry, 40km from Paris. In the intervening forty years he’s been bitten by a hippo, trampled by an elephant and kidnapped by poachers but his boundless enthusiasm and energy remain undaunted and his passion for animal conservation is undimmed. People said he was crazy, it would never work, especially as he refused to put the animals in cages. How wrong they were. Today you can either drive or saunter around the huge grounds to see over a thousand contented animals living in huge, leafy enclosures.

My highlight was walking under a glass tunnel with a lioness lying right above my head! Paul and his wife are having fun. For kids they've also provided talking trees, a maze and play areas for them.

Not far away is Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, one of the most

architecturally significant homes of the twentieth century. Le Corbusier wanted a home that would seem to float above the land and where walls are freed from structural constraints. Built 80 years ago, it’s still like entering the setting out of a futuristic novel, full of fascinating angles and lines with photo opportunities at every turn.

In Greece, we stayed on Samos, an island only 3km off the Turkish coast. We rented a beautiful little house right on the shore of the Aegean and were the very first visitors in this new venture of turning a family home into a holiday villa in these economically tough times. Our hosts had no English, we had no Greek but Greek hospitality transcends language. The garden was sown with vegetables which we were urged to eat and our hosts arrived on our second day with a huge crate of oranges, lemons and grapefruit they had just picked themselves from their orchard.

People breaking out, taking risks.

I love the spirit, the daring which I’ve tried to capture in my new book, A Risk Worth Taking where characters dig deep and face their darkest fears, willing to risk all to realise their dreams.

Have you made a dream come true or been inspired? Please share and be in to win a copy of my book which is released next month.