Playing With Fire

Overview: Diana Appleyard is a writer, broadcaster and freelance journalist. She worked as a BBC Education Correspondent before deciding to give up her full-time job to work from home, a decision which formed the basis for her first novel, Homing Instinct. She lives with her husband Ross and their two daughters in Scotland. Three couples, friends and neighbours... Tom, lazy and charming, looks after the children and thinks about writing a novel while his ambitious wife Sarah pursues her career as a journalist.Nat is married to the unstylish Cassie, who spends her life in jodhpurs, but although an ill-matched couple they have a strong and enduring marriage. Laure, the beautiful half-French wife of Gerard, is being shut out of his life because of financial worries. One winter's evening, Laure and Tom dance together at a local ball, and suddenly a world of possibilities opens up between them. Can they can forget the troubles of their own home lives and find a new excitement, a new solace? It's only a game, after all, not for real...But playing with fire can hurt, as they both find out. Sasha feels that she is captive in a life which no longer satisfies her. Her children are critical, her husband unsupportive, and she is bored and unfulfilled. So with two good friends, she escapes to Peru to take on the challenge of a lifetimeto walk the Inca Trail. Amongst the grandeur of the mountains and the glorious ancient civilization of the Incas, she discovers that she can grab hold of her life and wrench it back before it's too late. Carrie Adams, successful television producer, mother and wife, is about to return to work. Carrie is desperate to reinvent herself from housewife to svelte career womanbecause this is what today's women do, don't they? But she isn't happy, the children aren't happy, and her husband Mike is becoming more and more detached from family life. She begins to think that perhaps this isn't the right choice for her. Alone at the holiday cottage for one last night with her young daughter,Tess has the time to take stock of her life. A life, which, on the surface, has everything a woman could want. So why, nowthatthe children are growing up, does she want more? The dramatic decision she makes that night sets her off on quite a new journeybut one for which she may need the courage to travel alone. Sasha feels that she is captive in a life which no longer satisfies her. Her children are critical, her husband unsupportive, and she is bored and unfulfilled. So, with two good women friends, she escapes to darkest Peru, to take on the challenge of a lifetime - to walk the Inca Trail. It has been an idyllic summer, Tess reflects, as she packs up the Cornish holiday home in preparation for plunging back into the cold reality of normal life. It's time to start thinking the unthinkable...Carrie Adams, successful television producer, mother and wife, is about to return to work.