The Way of Life

People are never what they seem to be. Take four women, friends since school. Add four men, six days and ninety-five miles of breathtaking Scottish Highland scenery, and you have a recipe for a journey filled with secrets and lies, accusations and apologies, laughter and tears, aches and pains, blisters and midge bites. Joy is a perfectionist who doesn't do failure. She has kept her friends at a distance for so many years that she feels they don't know her anymore and could never understand how she feels. She has been meticulous in her planning of the holiday, how could she have known that the secret she had protected and guarded for so many years would be revealed the night before the holiday, threatening to blow apart her life with Daniel and the fragile mask of their perfect marriage. Kathy's pleasant demeanour hides a demoralised woman with little self belief. She adores her friends and longs for the normality of their loving relationships. She loves hill walking and agrees to join her friends, not imagining for an instant that her controlling husband, Tony would join them. But she takes solace in the fact that he is driving the bus - not walking with the group. Her secret plans to start a new life become more urgent as she feels increasingly suffocated by Tony's presence, and humiliated by her own behaviour. Ruth is caring, lively and funny but also lonely and bored. Always the diplomat, she often finds herself mediating in highly charged encounters between the other women. She doesn't think she'll manage five miles let alone ninety five, but the prospect of Brad, a highly eligible bachelor, who is joining the group, makes the holiday seem more appealing. She misses her children who live with their father and she needs a new purpose in life, but the last place she expects to find it is in the middle of the Scottish Highlands. Trish, a straight talking woman who cares deeply for those close to her, often offends with her blunt words. Her friends, who can't help resenting her apparently idyllic life, snub many of her frequent attempts at well meaning advice. During the walk, her happy comfortable relationship with Rob, her husband, becomes strained when she refuses to follow her own 'honesty is the best policy' approach. As the miles roll on, the unrelenting heatwave saps their energy. Feet are weary and blistered, tempers become frayed and accusations are made. With nowhere to hide in the solitude of the mountain footpath, emotions are exposed in all their rawness, and truth and honesty finally find their voice. The Way of Life is a story of relationships, secrets, trust, honesty, and discovering that being true to yourself, sometimes means being strong enough to make changes, no matter how difficult that may be.