INDIA
I grew up hearing stories of southern India, where my parents and brother were born. I was the oddity, born in Sussex. The first trip in 1973 astonished me in terms of the divide of my life; I have now been back four times and each visit humbles, impresses, calls to me more. My recent trip of March 2016 was to Calcutta and Darjeeling in search of the dying days of the Raj for a novel I'm writing and I found it in the tea plantations where Kanchenjunga of the Himalayas smiled benignly upon us. India is part of me. I have to keep returning. I have to go higher into the mountains. Here I found peace like few ever find.
PATAGONIA
Looking upon the San Rafael Glacier in Patagonia 15 years ago made me rethink my views on our changing planet. The markers from the 1920s and how dramatically the ice has receded each decade shocked and appalled all of us who stood there in the eerie silence bearing witness to this glimpse into the fragility of nature. While she fights back constantly I felt emotional in this place, not just for its exceptional beauty but for knowing it is disappearing.
AUSTRALIA
I was raised in England. Australia was that place on the other side of the planet where the water ran down the plughole the wrong way and people spoke English with an odd accent and the sun was always shining. When I arrived in 1980, aged 20, with a plan to travel the world, I halted for good in the shimmering city of Sydney. It was such a change from the bleak, wintry London of the late '70s and a fabulous place full of hardworking, happy people who wore shorts and strange long socks with lace-up shoes to work. That visit changed my life. I didn't return to England again – other than to visit. I call Australia home, married an Aussie and raised a couple of them.
SCOTLAND
Honeymooning here three decades ago, just days after my name shifted from Cornish to Scottish through marriage, there was an unexpected sense of belonging. Scotland, more than any other place, lives in my heart since that visit and everything about it sings to me from its cooler weather to the delicious Scottish brogue. I could live in Argyll in a heartbeat.
FRANCE
From the first ghastly ferry crossing in the early '70s from Dover to Calais I lost my heart to France: its strange smells, its arrogance, endlessly glorious countryside, arrestingly beautiful architecture, history and food – especially its bread and pastries.
Fiona McIntosh's new novel, The Chocolate Tin (Michael Joseph, $32.99) is out now. See penguinrandomhouse.com.au
