One Summer in Provence, in conversation with Carol Drinkwater

Carol Drinkwater, One Summer in Provence
(image provided by Carol Drinkwater)

I am delighted to welcome actress and writer Carol Drinkwater to the blog today. I’ve long been a fan of her writing, both her fiction books and her Olive Farm memoirs, so it is with great excitement that I can help her share her latest release, ONE SUMMER IN PROVENCE. This book is set on a vineyard in the majestic Esterel region of the south of France and Carol was gracious enough to answer some questions about the characters, their vineyard and what we can expect from this book. 

A bit about Carol:

Carol Drinkwater is a multi-award winning actress and writer, possibly best known for her portrayal of Helen Herriot in the BBC’s original television series, All Creatures Great and Small.

Carol is the author of twenty-four books, both fiction and non-fiction. She has achieved bestselling status - over a million copies sold worldwide - with her much-loved quartet of memoirs set on her Olive Farm in the south of France, The Olive Farm series. 

Carol's fascination with the olive tree extended to a seventeen-month solo Mediterranean journey in search of the tree's mythical secrets. The resulting, bestselling travel books, The Olive Route and The Olive Tree, were adapted into a five-part documentary film series, which has been screened all over the world.

Carol’s novels include THE FORGOTTEN SUMMER, THE LOST GIRL which was one of LoveReading’s Books of the Year 2017.  THE HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF published in May 2019. AN ACT OF LOVE published early 2021.

In 2022/23, Channel 5 in the UK screened a six-part series titled CAROL DRINKWATER’S SECRET PROVENCE. It is still being screened worldwide, garnering millions of viewers internationally.

Carol’s latest novel, ONE SUMMER IN PROVENCE, was published by Corvus Atlantic on 3rd July 2025.

 

One Summer in Provence by Carol Drinkwater

Depending on the time of day, may I suggest you pour yourselves a coffee or a glass of wine, then settle down in a comfy spot to enjoy a taster of summer, in a vineyard, in Provence. 

In your latest novel, One Summer in Provence, Les Roches du Soleil is the unexpected vineyard home to ex-London couple, Dominic and Celia. Can you tell us a bit more about them and how they came to be living in the south of France, making wine?

Celia spent her childhood and youth in a small town near Bristol. She left for London when she was twenty to study to become an actress at drama school. Some years later, she met Dominic when they were both working on a television play written by Dominic. They married soon after and built successful careers in the worlds of television and theatre. They lived in Primrose Hill. Had it not been for an unexpected setback in their fortunes, they would probably never have considered the move to France. Certainly, Dominic would not have uprooted. But one of Life’s twists and unforeseen changes of direction pushed them to Provence. Celia’s parents were the proprietors of a vineyard in the south of France. It was her father’s dream to own his own patch of French wine-growing territory. He was an early ex-pat, (before Peter Mayle and the wave of foreigners who headed to Provence!) After Celia’s parents had both died, she inherited the estate. The inheritance, due to the couple’s troubles in London, (which we only learn about later in the story) proved to be timely.

From just the first few chapters, I easily slipped into life on the vineyard and certainly wanted to read more about how Celia’s son turning up was going to play out. 

I am delighted to read, Jacqui, that the narrative drive of the story gripped you early on. That is so important. Thank you. Yes, the arrival of the man who claims to be Celia’s son, along with his unlikely travelling companion, does set the story rolling in new and unexpected directions.

The vineyard is in the Esterel area, with its particular red, rocky landscape. For those of us not lucky enough to be there, can you describe what is so special about this coastline for us?

As you say the earth, which is ancient volcanic land, is dark rusty-red in colour.  Gorgeous, rich. It’s really very striking. And it does make for unusual wine-growing. Like all this Med coast area, as you move inland it very quickly becomes dramatic because it is set in the foothills of the Lower Alps.

Soil is important for vine growing, does the Esterel soil make a good wine? If so, I hope you had a chilled bottle to hand to celebrate One Summer in Provence’s publication day.

This area is not one of France’s more famous and highly-esteemed regions for growing wines. However, that is slowly changing. There are some very fine wines being produced in the Var area (where this novel is set) and they are not only the famous rosés. Excellent dark ruby reds too and light crisp whites.

I find that in a well-researched novel, the setting/location becomes one of the characters, how important do you think it is to an engaging read?

Location, for me as a writer, is always an essential element. We are impacted by our surroundings. I am deeply rooted in nature and need to put my writing fingers in the soil, as it were. I was partially brought up on a farm in Ireland and so the rituals of crop production, feeding, nurturing, are in my DNA, I think. I agree with you that location can be a character in a novel. Location with some dramatic weather changes have quite an important role to play in this story.

Although vineyard life was never their plan, it seemed that there was something about life on the land and the changing seasons that spoke to Dominic and Celia. Was this a bit of south of France magic and can you relate?

Never underestimate the magic and lure of this part of the world! PACA (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur) offers myriad different faces. It can be lush and poetically beautiful; it can be stark and rugged especially further inland; it can be buzzing with life and elegance for the tourist trade. It is fecund, almost everything grows here and nature’s abundance is very attractive, almost addictive. If I were Dominic or Celia and I had inherited this lovely old vineyard, I would have stayed on too!

Carol Drinkwater on her olive farm
(image provided by Carol Drinkwater)

As you are as at home on the land in the south of France as Celia and Dominic, what is your favourite season on your olive farm?

Every season has its secrets and its gifts. These days, as the heat becomes more intense, I find that summer can be too hot for me, but there is never a day when I wish I was living in another country. France, the Côte d’Azur, is one of the loveliest places on earth. I consider myself immensely fortunate.

Can you describe a typical summers day for Celia and Dominic, to give us all a taste of life at Les Roches du Soleil?

Well, they are landowners and land workers so their days would include being out in the vineyards. Sometimes working long hours. Late summer - September - is grape harvesting season, which is a time of group activity - extra causal labour is employed to pick - and important decisions about when to pick the fruit clusters are made. There is a science to that. Communal lunches are enjoyed out in the fields, at the edge of the vineyards. I know from our own olive harvests, when we have many friends to stay to help us bring in the olives and get them to the mill for pressing, how engaged everyone becomes. It’s very exciting. Friends, or in Celia and Dom’s case, hired hands, all become invested in the outcome. The desire for the finest produce, fruits harvested with love and care. 

These are traditions that go back to the Middle East thousands of years ago.

You can’t write about France and not include delicious food and wine. Are there any of your favourite French summer dishes that make an appearance in the book?

When Celia and Dominic discuss the menu for the grand weekend party, I was salivating as I made the choices for that section of the novel. Lamb cooked over a fire outside seasoned with a generous sprinkling of freshly-grown Provençal herbs. Home-grown veggies, wines to accompany each step of the occasion, each dish. I had great fun with this part of the storytelling. Someone said to me that they gained weight just reading it!

As well as the vineyard, will we get to visit any other Provençal gems alongside Celia and Dominic?

Aside from a couple of scenes set in Cannes - I don’t want to say too much here! - the novel is predominantly centred at their vineyard.

Henri, Celia and Dominic’s gardener with his chickens, accordion and vegetable garden was one of the characters who put a smile on my face. Was there one character in the book whose story shouted louder than the others to be told?

Each character is my best friend while I am writing about them and creating them. I love Henri because he is such a gracious old man, carrying his personal sorrows with dignity and because he loves and tends bees!

What do you hope your readers will remember most at the end of the novel?

Love and family are where you find and welcome them. 

Thank you, Carol, for taking the time to answer my questions. I was hooked from the first few chapters and will be sharing my review soon. 

The novel has many twists and turns, plenty of mystery and readers are saying it is a page-turner. I hope it sweeps you away to a magical setting even if events take several unexpected turns. Please enjoy it, I loved writing this novel. It is intended as a celebration of Provence.

One Summer in Provence by Carol Drinkwater

ONE SUMMER IN PROVENCE is available to buy in all good bookshops. Here are some links to Amazon for the kindle and paperback editions.

Amazon kindle 

Amazon paperback 

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Carol has just completed the first leg of her book tour. She will be in both UK and Northern Ireland from September onwards. The dates and events will soon be up on her website, click here for more details.