It was a caesarean birth so I was pretty high on anaesthetic and gas but I remember it so clearly: my anticipation and impatience, the mix of elation, pride and relief on Frederic’s face. The moment when my husband walked across the operating theatre with our newborn son in his arms. If you could replay a moment of your life over and over again, what would it be? Do you have any hot writing tips for beginners?ĭon’t worry if it’s any good and whether anyone will want to read or publish it. Normally at the end of a scuba dive I'd feel ready to return to land and air but that time I didn’t want to get out. It was like looking through a kaleidoscope, there was so much stunning colour and light and shifting patterns. The pass was crammed with sea life that streamed around us and rose in great walls and banks in front of us.

Drift diving on the current was an unforgettable experience - I felt like I was flying. There's nothing there except a string of tiny islets, one or two pensions, and Tumakohua Pass, a narrow, pristine ocean channel connecting the sea to Fakarava’s vast lagoon. In All Good Things I write about a scuba diving trip my husband and I made to the far side of Fakarava, a remote atoll in French Polynesia. Lord of the Flies would have to be high on the list too – I reread it recently and was struck by how perfect it is. It’s original and poetic, like nothing I’ve ever read. Peter Heller’s novel The Dog Stars is a new favourite. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner is one of my all-time favourites – it’s a quiet, beautiful story about friendship and marriage. After nearly a decade in France, Sarah spent several years on an island near Tahiti. Formerly a television journalist with SBS in Sydney, she began working as a freelance writer following her move to Paris in 1994.

It takes five years to feel comfortable, Turnbull reckons.Sarah Turnbull is the author of the international bestseller Almost French. One Australian who returned home with her French husband after two or three miserable years in France wished, having shared Turnbull's experiences, that she'd given it longer. Some say her evocative book makes them want to rush to France many thank her for expressing the loneliness and confusion of their own expat life there. She also gets letters from around the world. 'But, perhaps because I'm over here, it all seems a bit abstract.' More and more, though, she is recognised by people such as the Queensland couple and an Aussie bloke who said to his mates as he approached her, 'OK, I'll be the dickhead. 'Obviously I'm thrilled with how the book is selling,' she says. 'Nothing illegal this time,' she says, referring to a chapter in which they sneaked in a window, defying a tangle of red tape in true French style. She's speaking from the sixth-floor, walk-up apartment in central Paris near les Halles that she and Frederic are renovating to add a room.

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