On a clear day you can see the highest point of Saba from Anguilla – it’s the misty volcano-shaped island that peeps over the flat part of Saint-Martin / Sint Maarten.

Saba from Shoal Bay West Anguilla

I was supposed to go to Saba twenty-two years ago as part of my first trip to the Leeward Islands, a cruise on the Windjammer, but it was too rough to anchor so we sailed straight to Anguilla. I slept on deck that night, wrapped in the musty blankets from our icy air-conditioned accommodation. I hated being in that coffin like cabin where I imagined catching legionnaires disease, but I loved being out on the deck gulping in the breeze and gorging on stars.

My first sighting of my soon-to-become beloved was gloriously romantic. I met Anguilla at sunrise bathed in the rose gold of the early morning light – the bizarrely beautiful minion-like domes of Cove Castles popping out of the salt-resistant greenery and pinky white sands of Shoal Bay West. So utterly different from anything I had ever seen before.

Godiva and Foxy on Shoal Bay West Anguilla Cove Castles in the background

In a nice turn of coincidence, the day I decided I would treat myself to a writing trip I was on that same beach, walking and swimming with the puppies when I saw Saba. I thought for the hundredth time, I want to go, followed by: I need to stop saying ‘I want to go’ and just do it.

I flew from SXM airport on Winn Air

Saba has the shortest commercial landing strip in the world!

It’s quite exciting!

In the words of my dear friend Lily, ‘Saba didn’t disappoint’. It is a green and pleasant land – well rock, really – with villages that are part-Caribbean part-Cotswolds. The Dutch and the British influences are evident in building regs and chocolate box cottages.

The Bottom (yes I stole the name for my books!)

Windwardside where I stayed

Saba, known also as the unspoiled queen, has an even smaller population than – and an equally huge pride in its unique and unspoilt charms as – my island home. And every Saban I spoke to knew of, or had a friend in, Anguilla.

I booked onto a Sunset Cruise and bumped into Jackie who is a good friend of my friend Janine. She moved from Anguilla to Saba to teach and loves the hiking in her new island home.

I stayed at the charming Juliana’s hotel, an exemplary, eco-friendly, intimate, affordable boutique property. My room was perfect for its purpose – to write a lot of words. I had a capacious balcony, and I never ever drew the curtains, as that would block out the view of mountains, flowers, sea and sky.

Lovely views all over the property at Juliana’s.

Why do I find it so productive and inspiring to go to Saba or Greece or Costa Rica to create when I live in my own paradise? I think it’s because spending time and money on my writing career shows it respect. Spending cold hard cash on my writing has helped me publish three novels in four years and be on my way to finishing a fourth.

Travel feeds my imagination and gives me ‘wings’ to write – I got so into my new book (sometimes I didn’t move an inch for hours) but I also cherish every moment I stepped away from it to go for walk, or take a tour or in the case of Saba, enjoy an eco-dying class. And then there is the thrill of hanging out at the hotel bar, an anonymous (maybe even mysterious) woman who introduces herself as a writer.

Eco dying course with Julianas Artist in Residence Anna Keene

On a writing retreat there is nothing ordinary or habitual to derail my concentration or creativity. I am in a new place with new people, hearing their never-heard-before opinions about the new place I am visiting. After living in your characters’ heads for hours its fun to start a conversation with someone and imagine it’s the character, not you, talking to the nice couple from Holland who are going to Statia the next day, or quizzing the American artist who has opened a studio on the island about their lives and journeys.

Traditional Saban home museum with lots of bunnies in the grounds. Green everywhere and cool Caribbean breezes in Windwardside.

This book started with a ‘moment’ I had on a cruise ship, combined with my feelings and thoughts about turning 60. I am expanding this idea into a series of events (scenes) and have created two female protagonists. I’ve added in a device to help me tell their stories and some extra characters and settings to get said story rolling. Now those naughty women are so alive to me they are making up things by themselves!

I won’t know exactly how this book is going to end until I get there and that makes me both nervous and excited. I started writing it in northern Spain last year (staying at my favourite writing retreat with my favourite writing family members) and I made a good start – then I had to put it on pause. Spending a week in lovely Saba really helped me immerse myself in the characters again, after having given them scarce attention for some months.

Inspiration from @carlywatters

If you’d like to see more of beautiful Saba, as well as the pics here I have posted a whole bunch more on my Trudy Nixon Books Facebook page and Instagram feed.

I’ve also decided to occasionally go back in time over the coming months and post pics from a few more of my past travels. I want to have a record somewhere of all the lovely places I have been, and I like the idea of my readers talking to me about them or suggesting other places they think I might like to visit. I think travel is always going to be part of my writing. I can’t imagine a character that stays in the same place for the whole book.

I plan to go on more writing retreats, and I will report back when I do. I would like to go back to Saba to write – it was so cool and nice up on Mount Scenery – but I did miss being close to the sea. Looking at it is not the same as being in it and I’m never more than five minutes away from ‘endless turquoise’ in Anguilla.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on my trip and my new novel, so please feel free to message me with any questions any time.

x Trudy

The view down to the beach at Saba and the famous Diamond Rock.