Step Into The Story

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 Hardwick Hall on the border of Derbyshire and Yorkshire, a house described as "more window than wall." I'd never been to Hardwick Hall before last weekend, a shocking omission when I consider myself to be a fan of the Tudor period and of Bess of Hardwick in particular, that tough, shrewd woman who worked her way up society from her beginnings as the daughter of a poor gentry family and ended up founding a dynasty. One of the first historical novels I read was a fictional biography of Bess of Hardwick entitled only "Bess." It enthralled me and fostered my fascination with history and I dearly wish I had kept my copy or could at least remember the author's name. So last weekend, on the way to my research trip/canal boat holiday in Yorkshire, I finally made my pilgrimage to Hardwick Hall. When I came out of my tour of the house I was so stunned and over-awed I couldn't speak for about an hour. This happens to me sometimes when I've seen a play...

This is one of the most imaginative and fascinating ideas I've heard for a while. The National Portrait Gallery in London and the National Trust's Montacute House are jointly mounting a new display of thirteen portraits where the identity of the sitter is lost, mistaken or uncertain. All the pictures date from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and are probably of courtiers, merchants, musicians and others who wished to be immortalised through art but whose identity is now forgotten. Inspired by the mystery portraits, authors including Tracy Chevalier, Minette Waters, Terry Pratchett and Joanna Trollope have written short stories of what the lives of these sitters might have been like and have created fictional biographies and character sketches. These draw on the details in the paintings; the costumes, the background, the pets, decorations, furniture etc etc to create a richer picture. Minette Walters has written a poignant letter from the perspective of the wife of a ma...

This week's recipe is courtesy of the National Trust. It's a warming winter casserole and it dates from the 14th century. It serves 4, but sadly not 4 peasants because the ingredients would have been too expensive for them to buy. The recipe comes from the cooks of King Richard II who recorded their recipes on a parchment called The Forme of Cury, Cury being Old English for the word cooking. Casseroled Pigeon with Herbs and Spices Ingredients : 4 pigeons, 12 large cloves of garlic, 4 teaspoons of chopped fresh thyme, 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley, Salt and freshly milled black pepper, dripping for frying, half a pint of chicken stock, the juice of half a lemon, a large pinch of ground ginger, a pinch of saffron strands, half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, fresh herbs to garnish. Method: Go to your dovecote and fetch fresh pigeons. Go to your walled garden to cut fresh herbs. Stuff the pigeons with three garlic cloves, one teaspoon of thyme and half a teaspoon of parsle...

I'm just back from a research trip to England's smallest county, Rutland. It's an area of the country that I love but that I haven't visited in a very long time so it was great to re-acquaint myself with the beautiful stretch of Rutland Water, the historic town of Oakham and lots of tea shops along the way! My next couple of blogs are going to be all about the historic houses that I visited because I had such a lovely time that I want to share! I chose places that were smaller than stately home size, with different and unusual histories, because although I love grand houses, these other places so often get overlooked and they have so much fascinating history to offer. There wasn't a particular theme to the houses that I chose. They don't all date from the Georgian or Regency periods, for example. I picked them because they sounded interesting. But as it turned out, two of the houses were linked - by debt, ruin and ambitious owners living beyond their means. Al...