A Perfect Day

There are some days in your life when everything goes right. This was one of mine. I had planned a day out on the Isle of Portland in Dorset with friends. The itinerary was good but unforseen events made it tip-top. For a start, the weather held up and was sunny all day.

We never intended to begin our trip in Weymouth but it was lunchtime and we were hungry... Well! when we got to the old harbour, a folk festival was in full swing. There were country bands playing and morris dancers prancing everywhere.

My particular target for the day was St George's Church at Reforne on Portland which I had glimpsed on a previous visit. Built betwen 1754 and 1766, it no longer functions as a church but is run instead by the Churches Conservation Trust. The gravestones dotted about tell fascinating stories of local smuggling and shipping disasters in the 18th and 19th Centuries.

St George's was built to replace medieval St Andrew's Church at Church Ope Cove, destroyed by a landslip. Game for anything, we went in search of it. A difficult path led down past the ruined church and tumbled down graveyard and there, at the bottom, was this hidden gem - Moonstone Beach. It was the cherry on the cake, which of course we also managed to fit in, along with a pot of tea, at a cafe overlooking the 2012 Olympic sailing venue in Weymouth Bay.

A perfect day indeed.

Caerwent and Chepstow Castle

The great thing about driving to the RNA Conference at Caerleon, and staying overnight on the Sunday, is the opportunity it afforded for some sightseeing on the Monday. The area around Caerleon is rich in Iron Age and Roman remains. Caerwent, known as Venta Silurum to the Romans, is just a few miles to the east along the A48. Founded in AD75 it was the only Roman town in Wales. The view below is from close to the Parish church. It's difficult to believe that this village, these quiet fields, were once a thriving Roman town.


Further east, just above Chepstow and overlooking the mouth of the Wye, is Bulwarks Iron Age Camp inhabitated in pre-Roman times by the Welsh tribe of the Silures. There is little to be seen on the ground because the defensive banks and ditches are now overgrown. The cleared area inside is a recreation ground where local people exercise their dogs! An aerial view gives a better idea of how important it must once have been. There are several on the Internet.


Less shy about its location and heritage is Chepstow Castle (above). What a chunk that is in the landscape. The most striking thing about it is its location on cliff at a bend in the River Wye, a river which forms the border between England and Wales. Building on the castle began soon after the Norman conquest in 1066, and one of its most famous residents, just a century later, was William Marshall. This in the entrance he built.


In the picture below is one of its massive gates, looking far more artistic than it was meant to.


Opposite the Castle is Chepstow Museum, definitely worth a visit for the beautiful curving staircase and the cupola-like window above which lights it. The house was built at the end of the 18th Century. The staircase reminds me of one at Tiffany's in Old Bond Street which was once a house lived in by Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton.

This last photo is of the view from Chepstow Castle, across the River Wye.

RNA Conference, Caerleon, 8-10 July 2011

For the first time, the Romantic Novelists' Association Conference took place in Wales, at the town of Caerleon where once the soldiers of Rome's 2nd Augusta Legion had their military base.

What a thoroughly enjoyable weekend it was. There were seminars by RNA members, and talks by editors and agents who also offered us opportunities to discuss our work with them. The most memorable session was given by Freda Lightfoot who generously shared with us her experience of publishing novels on Kindle. See below.


Liz Fielding advised us on how to blend humour with emotion, Rachel Summerson on creating characters we can believe in, and Lesley Cookman, Jean Goodhind and Penny Grubb revealed how they turned to crime! Another useful workshop was given by Linda Gillard (pictured below) on the virtues and pitfalls of using description.


There were some practical sessions too. Alison King had strategies for helping us sit down and get words on the page, while Valerie Webster got us back on our feet with a dance practical!

For next year's conference the RNA will be back in the north of England at Penrith. The date has already gone in my diary.

Cornish Holiday September 2010

Just back from a holiday in Cornwall and thought I'd better blog about it before it becomes ancient history, like the Carn Euny fogou near St Just!

On the way down, we stopped for lunch near the Cobb at Lyme Regis in Dorset, and I managed to get this photo of the Georgian cottages on the promenade just before the rain came down.

Fortunately the weather had improved by the time we visited Lamorran Garden the following day. It's located above St Mawes, and is the most lovely I've visited in Cornwall. It's all terraces and winding paths, and grottos with ponds and statuary. The photo I've chosen to post is of a waterfall. Aren't those reflections just fantastic?


Last year in Cornwall I drove the rugged coast from St Ives to St Just without seeing a blasted thing because the mist was so heavy. This time the weather was more than kind - it was glorious. This is the coastline looking north from Pendeen Lighthouse towards Zennor.

The St Just area was tin mining country and it is dotted with derelict buildings and old chimneys. Copper and tin have been mined here for thousands of years, since long before the Romans came. The focus at the Levant Mine were the rugged coastal inlets called zawns, where ore could be seen in the rock at the surface. The mining evventually followed the seams miles under the sea. One of the zawns is shown below.

This is an ancient landscape with neolithic and Iron Age sites. Two stone villages have survived - Chysauster and Carn Euny. At its heart, the latter has a partly buried circular stone chamber and passageway called a fogou. The passageway is pictured below.

I was staying in Porthleven so perhaps I should finish with a couple of photos from there. Here's one of fishing boats in the inner harbour.

And I can't miss out this sunset. It was taken from the Atlantic Inn. The view is over Porthleven Harbour towards Penzance and Newlyn.

If you look more closely you'll see people walking out along the breakwater.

Five Star Reviews for Pure Silk

I'm rather pleased. I've had two glowing reviews for 'Pure Silk', my first published work of fiction. I gleaned 5 Hearts from the Romance Studio, and 5 Cherries from Whipped Cream.

I feel I should celebrate so I'm going put the kettle on and have a cup of tea, and while I'm drinking it I'll try to figure out how to insert the links into this blog and on my website! The reviews are on my page at Total-e-Bound's website which you can access by clicking on the cover of 'Pure Silk'.

Quarry Bank Mill, Haworth, East Riddlesden Hall

We were in Cheshire but wouldn't leave the area without a visit to Quarry Bank Mill. Founded in 1784 by Samuel Greg, it was built beside the River Bollin, which powered the mill's machines. The profits however, were powered by cheap cotton (picked by slaves in America's Southern states) and cheap labour (much of it provided by pauper children as young as nine who were sent to the mill from workhouses in Liverpool, Manchester and London). The mill building is huge and has many levels. Below is the Apprentice House which Samuel Greg built as the number of child workers increased. The apprentice system lasted well into the Victorian period (1847).

There is one place in Britain to which I have returned again and again - Haworth in Yorkshire. Here Charlotte (Jane Eyre), Emily (Wuthering Heights) and Anne (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) lived.

The Parsonage (above) was their home and is now a museum. Nowhere has a stronger sense of the lives of its former famous inhabitants than Haworth. Below is the alleyway linking the Parsonage to the top of the town.

The moorland around Haworth has atmosphere in spades, and several local houses are believed to be represented in the sisters' novels. Ruined Wycoller Hall is the inspiration for Ferndean Manor to which the maimed Rochester retreats in Jane Eyre.
Below is the wonky bridge at Wycoller.

Haworth is on the edge of a conurbaton centred around Keighley, on the outskirts of which - an oasis of calm - is 17th Century East Riddlesden Hall. I wasn't that pleased with the photos I took of the hall itself, but I rather like this one - those are dog kennels framed by the blossom.

Later that day we visited the the remains of the Roman town of Aldborough in East Yorkshire, but there's a very little to see above the ground. The area, in early Roman times, was the territory of Queen Cartimandua of the Brigantes tribe.

Plas Nwydd and Little Moreton Hall

At the beginning of May we took our Spring holiday, and got into the car for a tour up through Wales to Chester and Knutsford. My brother has recently moved to a farm just above Aberfan, and this is the view down the Merthyr valley towards the Brecon Beacons.

There was no way I was going to miss out Llangollen. I had heard about the Ladies who once lived there in a house called Plas Nwydd (below).

Who were they? Lady Eleanor Butler and Lady Sarah Ponsonby - Anglo-Irish aristocrats who in 1778 fled Ireland for Wales, Lady Eleanor to avoid being sent to a convent, and Lady Sarah to escape the unwanted attentions of her guardian. They wanted to live the 18th Century ideal of a romantic friendship, and with begrudging financial support from their families, succeeded in doing so for over fifty years. Their friendship intrigued their contemporaries and their many visitors included Josiah Wedgewood, Wordsworth, Scott, Lord Byron, the Duke of Wellington and Lady Caroline Lamb, who was a kinswoman of Sarah Ponsonby.

Plas Nwydd is on the outskirts of Llangollen. It is on the River Dee (see above), which flows through North Wales to Chester (below).

Chester was once a large walled Roman town. The walls have survived, and the amphitheatre has only recently been excavated. The timbered merchants' houses in the main streets, although they look medieval are in fact later, the model for them being Little Moreton Hall, an absolutely fantastic timbered manor house a few miles south of Knutsford in Cheshire (see below).

What is so special about it? It is almost wholly Tudor. Building work started in about 1500, with wings being added over the next 100 years. No part of it is later than 1600. It belonged to the same family for centuries and has been preserved intact, if not exactly straight - you can see the wobbly bit in the photo. The inner courtyard is below. Nice tearoom too!

Knutsford itself is, of course, Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford. Shown below is a cobbled courtyard which is off the High Street where many period buildings have survived.

Knutsford is quite a bustling place, especially in the evening with so many places to eat. Quarrybank Mill and the Brontes' Haworth were the next places on the itinerary but I'll save those for the next post.