‘I’m Marnie,’ she stated. ‘I’m American by birth but when I was growing up I spent almost as much time in England as in the States.’ She added with an ironic lift of an eyebrow: ‘My mother made a hobby of marrying Englishmen.’

When she wasn’t being aggressive she had an attractive, rather husky voice. She went on, ‘I came up to Scotland for . . . for personal reasons. Then I saw this course advertised and decided to try it.’ She paused for a moment and then shrugged. ‘I hope it may help me find what I’m looking for . . . I guess you could say I’m on a bit of a treasure hunt.’ she said.

‘That sounds interesting,’ said Catherine. ‘Would you like to tell us more about it?’

‘Not really . . . or not at the moment anyway. I’m a pretty useless sort of person and I’ve spent most of my time running away from people and situations. Perhaps I need to take a trip down memory lane as well and try to learn a few things from it. Perhaps writing will help me too.’ She suddenly smiled at Catherine, and the smile transformed her face. ‘I’ll try to do as you suggested to Louisa and look on it as an adventure,’ she said, and shot a cautious, questioning look in Louisa’s direction.

‘Fine,’ said Catherine. ‘That brings me neatly on to something important I want to say to you all. Writing is a very personal business and can indeed be like a journey into ourselves, but I’m hoping that most of you will be brave enough to share some of what you write with the rest of us and that usually takes courage. I’d like you all to agree that anything we hear in the next few days will be strictly between “these four walls” and ourselves. If we’re dealing with personal feelings or getting glimpses of other people’s lives, this has to be a safe environment. Do you all agree with that?’