House and Garden Book of Vacation Homes and Hideaways edited by Leonie Highton

(Elbury Press, £30.00)

Unless you have hundreds of thousands of pounds floating around just waiting to be spent, this book will be merely a means of escape to display on the old coffee table.

For that purpose this picture-packed piece is absolutely perfect, but don't expect anything in the realms of the ordinary.

Houses by the sea, mountain retreats, country cottages and island paradises from a variety of world-wide destinations are beautifully photographed with a feast of pristine interior shots which suggest that human beings have never inhabited these luxury part-time domains - particularly not children.

So perfect are these designer shots that I did, just for one tiny moment, wonder if they were real! Just my jealous mind.

However, Leonie Highton has brought the book together with a few words of background history and description of each property's surroundings, and some useful design tips for those of you lucky enough to be able to attempt to recreate some of the more attractive features in these mouth-watering hideaways.

Unfortunately for me, the price of the book would stretch my bank balance enough to give the bank manager cause for concern. I feel a Lottery ticket purchase coming on.

An excellent buy for rich friends or inveterate dreamers like myself.

Jackie Harris