For those of you who are armchair travellers as we are, thought you might be interested in watching a new television adaptation of novelist Pat Conroy's fictionalized autobiography The Water is Wide. (This had been a feature film called Conrack, starring Jon Voight, many years ago.)

The programme will be aired on Sunday, January 29th, on CBS, at 9:00 Eastern time.

It is the story of Conroy's year of teaching grade school on Daufuskie Island off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, in 1969, to a very poor, black population. The students and Conroy developed a warm relationship and they all learn many life lessons.

When we visited Savannah about ten years ago, we took a day trip to Daufuskie Island, and saw the school house where he taught. Since Conroy lived there, the way of life has changed, and the island has been highly developed, including a large golf course.

For some information on Daufuskie Island (fictionalized in the novel as Yamacraw Island), go to www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daufuskie_Island,_South_Carolina

Margaret and Les in Toronto