Terrible With Raisins

Growing up at last?

Clair knew what was coming.

'...something pretty terrible...Not just plain terrible. This was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it'.

From 'The Middle or Blue Period', Dorothy Parker

There's a big birthday looming. Clair tries hiding from it on the Aegean island of Symi, Greece. Inevitably it catches up with her. But so do a couple of possibilities, interesting, attractive ones...Encouraged, she departs the Greek idyll to face the reality of her demanding daughter, her hypercritical mother, and the special person in Scotland who keeps her sane. But there's a secret she keeps from them all. In the coming year, she will swallow a lot of raisins, sweet and sour, in England, Scotland and Florida. She will discover plenty - and forget a few things (it was a BIG birthday), and, reluctantly, reveal her secret. Mother, daughter, niece, lover, reluctant teacher and neglected artist - will the real Clair Harkin please grow up?