“Until the middle of the nineteenth century, Biarritz was a community of whalers. During the Middle Ages, it had grown from a small fishing village into a profitable whaling industry. Whale oil was liquid gold to these sea-faring folk.”

British actress, writer and filmmaker

Carol Drinkwater is a British actress, writer and filmmaker who lives in France. She is best known for playing Helen Herriot in the television adaptation of James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small, and for her work as an author and filmmaker. Her role in that series brought wider attention, and she received the Variety Club Television Personality of the Year award in 1985. Beyond acting, her career spans writing and filmmaking, reflecting a creative life across several forms of storytelling.