Author Sarah Webb describes her holidays
What's your earliest holiday memory?We used to go on summer farmhouse holidays in Co Wexford and had great fun playing with donkeys there. But when I was about three and a half I remember falling off a donkey, grazing my knees and having a purply liquid put on them.
Your worst holiday?Antigua, a beautiful place to visit, was terribly hot. I brought my daughter there when she was eight months old. My partner was at a sailing event there. Everywhere was packed, and we ended up in a sort of shack with ants all over the place. I am not very good with bugs; one night I had enough and sprayed them with hairspray.
Your best holiday?I went to New Zealand seven years ago and I loved it: the scenery, the food and the people. I am a real outdoors person, and we did bungee jumping and swam with seals. I am also obsessed with whales, so loved whale watching in Kaikoura, where there were seven or eight of them blowing water beside us.
If budget or work were not a restriction, what would be your dream holiday?I really want to go on a husky safari with my teenage son in Norway or Sweden. Roddy Doyle wrote a book called Wilderness about a family husky safari. I have been obsessed with going ever since I read that.
If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you?My teenage son. He is really good fun and quite adventurous. I love seeing things through his eyes. Even though he is a cool teenager, he gets quite excited by new places.
What's your favourite place in Ireland?Castletownshend, in west Cork. My dad's people are from there. We have been going there since I was five, and my parents own a house at the top of the village. I love the seafood, sailing and hanging out.
Your recommended holiday reading?I pack hundreds of books for holidays. On my last holiday I read The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. It's great, very funny, and is quite small, so you fly through it. I always bring lots of notebooks to scribble on. I am a compulsive scribbler and experience it in a different way when I have written it down. The notebooks can be useful when trying to locate a story somewhere, for smells, sounds and noises.
Where to next?I am going skiing in April in Vail, Colorado, with some North American friends. It's my first time skiing, but if I don't like it I will enjoy tobogganing.
Sarah Webb's latest books are the adult novel Anything for Love(Macmillan, €13.99) and a teen novel, Amy Green, Teen Agony Queen: Boy Trouble(Walker Books, £5.99)
In conversation with Genevieve Carbery