Thanks to Prue Leith for this entertaining post. We're mighty excited for your visit!

I'm mighty excited about the Guernsey LitFest. Haven't been to Guernsey for 40 years - when I was so keen to see the island I accepted a freebie press trip to see a tomato farm. Plastic tunnels as far as the eye could see and an awful lot of tomatoes. No time for the Victor Hugo House either. So this time I hope to do better. And my fellow speakers look great. Just hope the festival goers are intrigued about a love story with a background of food and cooking since the war, the first part of a trilogy about three generations of a family. Lots of love, history, food and a wee bit of sex. Glad to say it's just been optioned for a TV series too.

Yes, yes, I know, options usually come to nothing. The production company has the rights for a year or more, you can't talk to anyone else and at the end of the period they can just say, "Nah… thought better of it." or, "So sorry, but we couldn’t raise the money." Or, "No, not going to work. Couldn't get Keira Knightley to sign up."  So I have no delusions. But I can dream, can't I?

This is the first time I've set out on a trilogy. And it’s been hard going. The Food of Love; Laura's Story, is the one I'm launching now. Book two, Angelica's story, is nearly done and I hope by the time I hit sunny Guernsey it will be - so I can go to the pub instead of tapping away all the hours that God gives.

It’s been fun though, digging into the changes in food and farming from rationing in 1945 to Heston Blumenthal now, via Fanny Craddock, Nouvelle Cuisine and macho telly-chefs. And it’s been interesting following the life and loves of the women in my story from Laura, a middle class war-time farm girl who elopes with an Italian ex-POW, to Angelica, her feisty daughter who falls in love disastrously with her cousin, and who knows who falls for whom in book three?

Prue Leith

Prue's talk - My Life on a Plate - is on Saturday 19th September at 14:30 in the Town Church. To book tickets please go to http://www.guernseyliteraryfestival.com