GIVEN the chance, who wouldn’t would pack in the day job for a life in the sun on a grown-up gap year?

Writer Maddie Grigg, aka Margery Hookings, the former editor of the Bridport News, did just that, exchanging the west Dorset hills and Jurassic Coast for the olive groves and crystal clear waters of Corfu.

She and her husband spent twelve months on the Greek island, renting a house belonging to the literary Tennant family, to see what it was like all year round.

But Maddie was unprepared for the ache of home.

She said: "Good Morning, Corfu: A Year on a Greek Island, is a story of love, friendship and laughter and what happens when two people go on a whim and a prayer to a beautiful but foreign country."

Just like the Durrells, whose real-life story is currently being told on ITV on Sunday nights, Margery and husband Andrew abandoned rainy west Dorset for a new adventure in Corfu. With beautiful countryside, kind neighbours and plenty of sunshine, what could have been better?

She said: “Given the chance, who wouldn’t pack in the day job for a life in the sun on a grown-up gap year? It was the most beautiful place and the Greeks are such warm, generous people. But I was completely taken aback by the homesickness I felt for Dorset and the south west.”

In 2012, the couple let their house in Broadwindsor and rented a house on the edge of a rural village near Paleokastritsa, on the north west of the island. The villa belonged to the family of the novelist Emma Tennant, whose books include A House in Corfu.

An extract from the book won her a trip for two to Peru in a travel writing competition run by Saga Magazine and The Telegraph.

Another extract brought her to the attention of the editor of the oldest women’s weekly magazine in the world, The People’s Friend, who asked her to be a columnist.

Good Morning, Corfu: A Year on a Greek Island is available as an ebook on Kindle or to order as a paperback from bookshops or via the website of FeedARead, a leading independent publisher, programmed with Arts Council funding.

She will be signing copies of the book at Waterstones, Bridport, on Saturday (7 May) from 10am until 2pm.

If you pop in after noon, you can try some Thiasos wine from the Peloponnese region of Greece, courtesy of Bridport’s Wessex Wines.

She has also published a novella A Year in Lush Places, based on her bog of life in Broadwindsor.