Miri, who lives in Havana, steps through an intriguing blue door and suddenly finds she has gone back in time to a couple of centuries before. She meets a disorganised pirate whose foul-mouthed and bad-tempered pet has made him buy fruit with the last of his loot and he's trapped in the port, in a sweat.Miri soon rescues the pirate - the parrot goes on being unpleasant - she helps him to hoodwink the Spanish and vanish; he gives her an exquisite present.Havana's a fabulous mixture of beauty, decay, tears and mirth. Juliet Barclay, the author, lives there with her daughter and thinks it's the best place on earth.