In 1990 Maxine Jones left her job as a sub-editor on The Independent in London to work for the Sunday Tribune in Dublin, exchanging the Northern Line for the Dart, a little green train skirting Dublin Bay. That move was her last for a while, as she had three sons – Conor, Marcus and Tiernan – in four years.

A domestic columnist and books editor with the Tribune, Maxine branched into freelance travel writing, doubling up assignments with family holidays. Her articles have appeared in the Irish Times, The Independent and The Observer.

Maxine, now a single mum, says that that her worst moments have been the three boys, who are all now in their teens, being sick in succession on the bus between Beauvais and Paris, and Marcus locking them all out of their campervan on Bastille night in France.