Dear Claire,
It was wonderful to receive your e-mail yesterday. I can't believe it's over six years since we were last in (32) 1234 How time flies! It was great to hear all your news, and thank you so much for attaching those photos of you and the family. You haven't aged a bit, and look as beautiful as ever! I'm still living in the same flat in Rome, but it looks very different to when you were here last. I've totally redecorated and knocked the wall through from the kitchen to the living room to make a large living (33) 1234 . It's a lot more comfortable for me because - and this is my other big news - I now work from home as a full-time writer! You remember that novel I always said I was writing? Well, I finished it, sent it off to a publisher and it was accepted for publication. This was about three years ago. The book (34) 1234 out in hardback first and got some fairly good reviews in the Sunday newspapers in the UK, and last year they produced a paperback (35) 1234 ! Can you believe it? I'm not rich yet by any means, but I am earning enough from royalties to have been able to (36) 1234 my job. I'm now hard at work on my second novel - let's just hope it doesn't take as long to write as the first one! Actually, it's (37) 1234 well and I hope to have finished it within the next six months or so.
I'll be coming over to the UK the first week of next month. I'd love to meet up! Let me know when you're free and we'll arrange it. I can either come over to your (38) 1234 and meet the family, or maybe just you and I can go out to dinner somewhere and (39) 1234 up on old times. Whatever you prefer. I'll be staying at a hotel in London and will only have a couple of meetings while I'm there, so I should be free most of the time. Let me know, and see you soon, I hope!
Lots of love, Celine