Laugh on Friday

by Patricia Robins

A whole new world opens up for Ann Elgar when she goes to stay with the Menton family on a year's exchange visit with their young son. For Ann, the chance to work in a Swiss resort at Madame Menton's ski club is a golden opportunity. The atmosphere of the gay ski resort in the mountains and the friendly companionship of Luc Menton, the elder son of her employer, seem to augur a happy carefree year in which Ann intends to speak French and to ski. Luc makes her especially welcome and soon it is clear that his affection is turning into love. But against Luc and Madame Menton's advice she makes friends with an older man, Paul Duret, an sophisticated French actor, who makes no secret of his infatuation with her. Anne is spellbound by Paul, whose charm and fascination blind her to the truth about his past reputation and past associations with the rich, glamorous Yvonne Verdes. Soon, the atmosphere becomes far from carefree, Luc falls deeply in love with Ann but it is the older man whom Ann finds that she has other lessons to learn besides ski-ing and French - she has to learn the somewhat painful lesson of growing up.

258 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1969

About the author

Patricia Denise Robins was born on February 1, 1921 in Sussex, England, where she also spent her early school years. She was the daugther of Arthur Robins, a corn broker on the Baltic Exchange and of the popular romance author Denise Robins, who after their divorce, remarried with O'Neill Pearson. Patricia has two sisters, Anne and Eve. She comes from an artistic family, numbering musicians, writers and painters. Her maternal grandfather was Herman Klein, a musician and her maternal grandmother was the writer K. C. Groom. Her maternal uncle was Adrian Cornwell-Clyne, who wrote books on photography and cinematography, another uncle was an artist, as is her daughter.

Patricia began writing at the age of ten, encouraged by her mother, who was the first president of the Romantic Novelists' Association (1960-1966). At 12, she published her first children's novella, The Adventures of the Three Baby Bunnies, ilustrated by Grizel Maxwell (aged 14). Patricia worked on the editorial team of a woman's magazine, her post gave her a unique insight into the world of publishing, but it was during the Second World War that her writing career as children's author became established. She produced a serial for Woman's Illustrated, and although her first love was always children's novellas, she could not find a publisher for her work and turned to romance fiction like her mother. She wrote romantic short stories and light romantic novels as Patricia Robins, publishing her works with Hutchinson, Hurst & Blackett and other publishing houses. In the later 1960s, she decided to use a pseudonym Claire Lorrimer, to write longer novels and family sagas. Her historical novels under this penname are characterised by meticulous detail and feeling for the period, often highlighting the situation of women. She believes that once started, a story writes itself. In 2007, she wrote her autobiography: You Never Know.

Although, Patricia has travelled extensively around the world, she has made her home in a four hundred year-old, oak beamed cottage in rural Kent. She enjoys such outdoor activities as gardening, tennis, ski-ing and golf. Her other interests include reading, travel, meeting people and entertaining, but her life is centred mainly around her three children, eight grandchildren, her work and her lovely home and garden.