I thought that we would not make it when the Indian driver lost control of the car in the snow. Luckily we survived the skids, entered the beautiful glen, and our journey was complete at the point that the road ended at the jetty on the loch.

The scene before us was just as described in the novel. The ancient hotel was just along the shoreline, and the castle across the water.

That evening, the châtelaine and her ladies came by boat to join is at the hotel. For reclusive inhabitants of the Highlands they were were glamorous. Each was dressed in a neat, primary coloured, skirt suit that must have been the height of fashion in the late 1960s. They all were fully made-up, coiffed, and displaying stunning jewellery. I felt rather scruffy in their company. Moreover, they put the state of the shabby hotel to complete shame.