Step Into The Story

Okay, I'm cheating now and cross posting something that I put up on the Ashdown House blog a month or so ago. I've closed the Ashdown blog down now and I'll be posting stuff here instead in future and also posting archive articles I hope will be of interest. Then, in August, it will be all change again when my NEW WEBSITE and BLOG are launched - exciting times! But for now, here is a piece I hope is interesting. It's also topical at the moment with temperatures in the UK set to hit 30C today and tomorrow. So pour yourself a cooling drink - iced tea? - and read on for a bit of a chill! Readers in the Southern Hemisphere might want a hot toddy instead, of course! In Ashdown village there are the remains of an icehouse. Trust me, they really are under this pile of weeds! A weed covered mound is now often the only evidence for the existence of an icehouse on an estate. There are similar enigmatic bumps in the grounds at Lancing Manor in Sussex and at Sherborne in Glouces...

I've taken a longer-than-expected break from the blog over the past couple of weeks due to a terminally stubborn set of book revisions that simply refused to work. I knew there were problems with the manuscript and, hard as I worked to fix them, my writer's intinct told me that there was still something wrong even when I had finished draft 2. I tinkered, I re-wrote, I changed one thing which led to another which brought the whole thing down like a pack of cards. I had a fabulously helpful set of revision notes from my editor but still I could not do it. I cried. I comfort ate. I didn't sleep. Now I have draft 3, a sleep deficit, and no idea whether the book is any good since my judgement is shot to pieces. I love being a writer. Anyway, now I've emerged into the daylight I see it is a beautiful hot sunny day so to get back into the blogging I decided to post a piece about aspects of the history of swimming, some of which is taken from an article I read in the Daily Tel...

This is a fantastic meme from Michelle Styles for anyone who loves to talk about books, especially the books that captured you when you were a child and are still with you now. Name at least one book that you read as a child (ie 11 or under) that still exists in your memory as a perfect story. You can say why if you wish, or simply give a list -- your choice. It can be a story that you are now uncomfortable about having loved or were uncomfortable at some point and have now come back to or alternatively just one that you have always loved. Here is my list: 1. A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley. History fascinated me even as a child, as did the idea of stepping back in time. I’ve been hooked on timeslip romance ever since! 2. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner. I could name just about every Alan Garner book for this list. I was totally hooked on his writing. The combination of adventure, magic and something just a little bit strange and spooky fascinated me. Plus the fact ...

Does the idea of a romantic short story set against the background of a historic house inspire you? If so then The Lady magazine is running a short story contest especially for you! The Lady has joined forces with Harlequin Mills & Boon and the National Trust to sponsor a writing competition and a series of creative writing workshops around the country. I am very excited to be running one of these at National Trust headquarters at Heelis, Swindon, on 28th June, when I will be sharing my top hints and tips on writing romance but also pictures and stories of my most inspirational National Trust sites. The writing contest is for a short story set against the background of a National Trust property - a historic house, a romantic ruin, a stretch of coastline or any other Trust venue you like. The stories should be in the romance genre and between 1500 - 2000 words. Details of the contest are here on The Lady website. The winner will be published in The Lady magazine. The runner up wil...

This is East Riddlesden Hall in West Yorkshire, our last port of call on our recent canal holiday. At the end of the 18th century, the Bingley to Skipton section of the Leeds to Liverpool Canal cut right through the estate, bringing vast changes to what had up until then been largely a rural landscape and way of life. These days the house and grounds are a small oasis in the urban sprawl of Bradford. For me East Riddlesden Hall has it all. It's small enough to live in without rattling around like a marble in a vast box (see Hardwick Hall), it's ancient (a medieval hall was first built there in the 14th century), it's eccentric, it has atmosphere in spades, it has a romantic ruin attached, it has a falcon mews and several resident ghosts. Who could ask for more? It is in fact so haunted that it has been featured on the TV programme Most Haunted. Only the week before I visited, the Grey Lady had been sighted in the tea rooms. Apparently she is the ghost of a Tudor lady whos...

"Only Mills and Boon can rival British intelligence," says MI5's official historian. This fascinating quotation was in The Guardian newspaper today, as related by Charlotte Higgins from the Hay Festival. She goes on to write that Christopher Andrew, who spent years as a member of of the service whilst he undertook the research for his book Defence of the Realm, claimed that the human resources consultants employed to discover the levels of job satisfaction at the British domestic intelligence service had found that there was "only one organisation they had investigated that had a higher morale: Mills & Boon." A Spooks/M&B collaboration must surely be in the offing. Of course this confirms for those of us in the know what we already knew: romance books make you happy. And so does spying. Allegedly. http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jun/02/christopher-andrew-mi5