I was raised by two cats is the improbable but true story of two people coming together across a huge gap in time. Perhaps Life truly can imitate Art, if they follow the signs!

'In March I returned to the Pyrenees to complete the research for Feeding the Vultures. Living life through Jacques's eyes had been a wonderful adventure, and now all that remained was to fill in a few details from his final journey.

'In a fine old spa town near the Spanish border I bought an ice-axe and crampons, ready to climb an eleven thousand foot mountain.

'A fortnight later, ice and snow were breaking free from the glacier. Big chunks of rock would crash down, covering a thousand metres in a few bounds.'

'Wisdom and experience kicked in, saving my life.  

'That day I decided not to take any chances with the section which leads to the summit.

'A few days later I heard that two Spanish climbers had been crushed beneath tons of compacted snow.  It seems likely that these were the two fine, strong young men I had met at the Refuge des Oulettes before heading back to my tent that evening.'

It has been Percy Stewart's lifelong ambition to climb the Vignemale, but climate change is making the highest peak in the French Pyrenees too dangerous for a solo walker.

'Sometimes I have to make alternative plans.

'Feeding the vultures requires a triumphant ending, so patience is needed! The Vignemale will still be there next year, and then I shall not be climbing it alone.'

This spring some kind of miracle happened in the oldest part of town.

'In the course of a simple Indian meal my life took on a whole new purpose, sharing ideas with someone else, just as we shared the poppadums and pickles.

'In fact it was already happening, there at the locations in Lourdes where threads of prehistory and history all come together.

'It felt as if we were being guided, and soon dark secrets began to emerge.'

The surprising sequel to the Tunesmith Trilogy comes direct from real life.

Against a backdrop of the Pyrenees of France and Spain, a deep, tender friendship develops, echoing that of Hetty and Jacques in Tunesmith and Pilgrim.

Where will the friendship lead?

All kinds of signs seem to point in one direction.