A necessity: My laptop. I take it everywhere I go so that I can check my e-mail and write no matter where I am. I travel so much that life has become a matter of honing things down to the barest essentials. Nowadays, I almost never go anywhere with anything more than hand luggage - and a laptop.

A luxury: My Clarins make-up kit. Despite trying to keep luggage to minimum, I do like to have all my cleansers and my hair and nail things to hand. Unfortunately, my grooming rituals do tend to ensure that my make-up bag is usually rather a heavy piece of kit.

A lucky charm: I know this sounds a bit mad, but I always take a tiny green cut-out leprechaun - about the size of a fingernail - with me. My mother gave it to me because we're Irish. She's adamant that it brings good luck.

If only: My three dogs. I've got an alsatian, a retriever and a French hunting dog. When I only had two, I used to call them double trouble, but now it's definitely triple trouble. They're very independent and always end up doing their own thing, so travelling with them would be dream - but probably a bit of a nightmare, too!

• Carol Drinkwater's new book, The Olive Farm, is published by Abacus at £7.99