So when she and her husband James decided to move permanently from Cornwall to their smallholding in South West France, she declared her intention of driving there by pony and trap. Her announcement was met by a stunned silence followed by questions.

"Will you know where you are and how will Dad find you?" asked the children.

"Can you ask for directions and will you understand the replies?" asked friends.

James calmly pointed out the obvious: "We don't have a pony," he said. Their driving pony had died of old age a few years before - but they still had the custom-built trap.

This delightful book traces how Polly the 12.2hh skewbald pony came into, and took over, the Pypers' lives - entering happily into the meticulously-oranised adventure of travelling hundreds of miles through rural France from Normandy to Gascony. Their plan was for Gay to drive the trap (and lead Polly up the hills on foot) while James went ahead each day with a 4x4 vehicle and caravan to set up camp for the evenings and longer rest stops. They did lots of research and reconnoitred the route several months in advance.

But first Gay and James had to buy a suitable second-hand caravan, and persuade DEFRA that they were not exporting Polly in order to eat her.

Then they had to deal with all the things that Fate decided to throw at them to make the adventure more nailbiting. In fact, disaster struck even before they started, putting the whole venture in jeopardy. As was to happen many times, the kindness of strangers saved them...

At the age of 15 she left school to work for Riding for the Disabled, and then she left home to work for a family, looking after their hunters and point-to-pointers. One summer was spent in Ireland learning the art of breaking and showing horses, after which she travelled to Australia as a £10 immigrant.

Whilst in Australia Gay worked in a variety of jobs including as a groom in a racing stables, a secretary in a health insurance office, in a beauty parlour and in a television station on an outback mine. Her duties included dealing with TV rentals, reading the news (when one day a poisonous red back spider slowly descended from the ceiling between Gay and her script) and putting programmes on air. James joined her in Australia and they returned to England to marry in 1975.

A year later they moved farms from Hertfordshire to Devon, making the move by tractor and trailer. During the following 20 years they moved home several times, buying derelict houses and restoring them. Their largest project was an ex-vicarage with outbuildings which James and Gay converted into self-catering holiday cottages.

In 1994 Gay began working at a local school as a clerical and classroom assistant whilst also driving a minibus daily for another school and working as a supply auxillary at a local hospital.

When their son and daughter left home in 2002, James and Gay decided it was time for life's next adventure and moved to their smallholding in Gascony, France, travelling by pony and trap.