Natalie's Last Holiday is a gentle preliminary to the tragedy that has been inevitable ever since Natalie came into the storyline. She is close to death now, but asks for one last holiday.

I decided on a yachting holiday on a planet very like the Greek Islands because it seemed just about the nicest, most relaxing holiday possible. I don’t know a lot about yachting, but I have read Riddle of The Sands AND the Diaries of Erskine Childers, both of which have a lot of amazing detail, including how to “kedge-off” and how embarrassing it is to yachtsman to have to do that. The yacht that Chrístõ and his friends travel on, the Dulcibella, is named after the yacht in Riddle of The Sands, in memory of a book that is extremely interesting if you have the patience for it.

The adventure within the caves took science fiction over the edge into fantasy, ever so slightly, with the mysterious voices of the caves and the doors that closed on anyone who tried to steal the treasure. It was deliberately pseudo-mythological, harking back to those colourful Sinbad films of the 70s with the Harryhausen special effects.

Originally, I was going to have Lord Nollen die in his attempt to take it with him, but it seemed to jar with the tone of the story. His imprisonment in the cave until ‘nature took its course’ seemed more appropriate and allowed for a little genteel lavatorial humour.

I was also planning to have Natalie’s death as the end part of this story. But in the end it didn’t seem to fit. Anyway, Natalie’s final chapter deserved to be that, and not just an afterthought.

http://www.riapress.com/riapress/booktext.lasso
?book=10&-session=StoreSession:514C212002bc825E13qrT18FEA5E

http://www.yalumba.co.uk/Framesets/Dulcibella.htm