Reader Diary

At last, autumn has arrived and we can breathe a sigh of relief. The sliced white bread brigade have gone back to their nests until next August. The guests in August seem so different to our customers for the rest of the year, as if it is the one and only time in 12 months they are let out. They demand blood for their money, and we just have to smile and try to please.

The children, too, have gone back to school and nursery, and a little normality has returned to our schedule, although we had great fun with them during the holidays. One day we held a children's cookery demonstration for nine-year-olds and above. Our eldest son attended and watched his father attentively. The children were magnificent: they asked questions, were enthusiastic and I hear from some of the mothers they have became budding chefs in their kitchens at home - unfortunately, the mothers have had to become commis and KPs rolled into one. The NSPCC got involved and we donated the profits to them.

September numbers have been excellent: 90% occupancy for the bedrooms. With the sun continuing to shine it makes our job easier with the hotel guests. In fact, we have been taken back by the number of covers we have had each night in the restaurant. The student workers have gone home and we have been left a little short in the restaurant. Local advertising has proved non-productive so far. Hopefully soon we will be back to a full team.

Not only is the hotel and restaurant busy, but we are flat out on cookbook two. We have learnt a lot from book one, so we are more in tune with what to expect. The jargon used in the publishing world confused us last time round. At the moment we are on target for publication next August so, fingers crossed, we can all meet the deadlines. Our biggest dilemma at the moment is just what to call the book. Another brainstorming exercise next week - let's hope I've found mine by then.

We have also had some great press this month: little snippets in the broadsheets and a few in the monthly glossies. The best, however, for personal reasons, was a mention in a British Tourist Authority magazine. I received a letter from a lady living in Canada who had read the article and noticed our surname in the contents. "Do you know my brother Bill? He would be in his seventies," she wrote. Of course we do, he's my father-in-law. I telephoned back, and within the week the two had been reunited. The last time they saw each other was 68 years ago. Thank goodness for publicity.

Tracy Blackiston is managing director of Morston Hall hotel, Norfolk