Claire ended up as an accidental island girl. A false start on a volunteering trip to Ecuador ended up with her finding a little environmental project on the small island of St. Eustatius, the “Golden Rock” of the Caribbean, at the end of 2007. Having a grass-green thumb, the idea of two months working in a beautiful botanical garden in the tropics sounded too good to miss. So she packed her bags, gave up her humdrum office job in the UK, and journeyed to sunnier climes.

While there, she met a quiet Park Ranger with an impossibly big smile known as “Gadjet” (thanks to his talent of fixing pretty much anything) and fell madly in love. Not just with him but his lovely island too and after many return visits with tearful goodbyes at airports (people would stare at the snotty-faced hippy openly wailing in the departure lounger), she decided to make a permanent move in 2009.

Six years has brought beach parties, SCUBA diving, gardening, lobster BBQs, a marriage, highs, lows, a beautiful baby girl, and all things in between. Life is not always easy on the “Golden Rock”, but through it all Claire’s favourite love story is still her own.

Although she misses family (as well as Tetley teabags, proper cheddar cheese, and greasy fish and chips), when she walks out of her house each morning and sees the ridiculously blue Caribbean sea 50 ft below her front gate, she smiles. She just can’t help herself.