I'll just check that.

 Caution -  anxious author alert! 

Pink roses - because they feature
quite a lot in the book and the list. 

I'm on the very last steps of getting The Villa in Portofino ready to send to the publisher. In theory this should just be proof checking, but with me, it also involves a lot of fact checking - not the big research stuff, but the little details. I know this is the result of an element of OCD in my nature. It would not take ten minutes every night to convince myself that I really have turned the cooker off before I can go to bed, if I wasn't a bit in that direction. I also know that it is not possible to get everything right - that old thing about not knowing what you don't know - but I have to try. So - as it is on my mind at the moment - the blog today is about ten random things I've checked for this manuscript - because everyone likes a list, don't they?

1. The sort of reinforced work boots a gardener would wear. 
2. The name of the Roman goddess of Justice
3. Roses that grow on the Riviera
4. DIY wills
5. Transatlantic voyages in the late 1960s
6. Famous American authors in 1950s and 1960s
7. How to construct a labyrinth
8. What a symposium is
9. The date that American President Richard Nixon was inaugurated
10. The history of Royal Albert "American Beauty" china

That is a real mixture and only a fraction of the things I looked up. The Internet is a wonderful place - and full of the most glorious rabbit holes. 

I wondering about what a reader can get from that list. If anyone wants to hazard a guess over what the book is about - I'd love to hear.