After having written fifty short novels for the library large print market, I am delighted to announce that Discovering Ellie is now available directly from Amazon in traditional large print paperback format.
Large print is defined as 16-to-18-point font size, in a plain font style, which is even spaced, and is primarily targeted at the visually impaired or elderly. Although the font can be changed when reading an eBook, not everyone can manage, have access to or use this technology. Therefore, it is important that those who need or prefer a traditional large print book still have the option to buy one.
The process of turning physical pages is something that many, who have read physical books over many years, find their brains relate to and appreciate. Research is ongoing into this.
Screens emit blue light, this can affect the eyes, fatigue and may, in those who are sensitive to them, trigger headaches.
Other people who may also benefit from reading large print are those who are dyslexic or ADHD. So, from young to old the physical book with clearer larger print can aid more people to have an enjoyable read.
There is also the increased focus on the novel as there is no other distraction of social media, advertisements, or the temptation to check emails etc. also available on some devices. A physical book offers a focused and immersive experience, which for certain groups is beneficial.
After working on a computer or studying – or socialising on a device, tired eyes can also find the large print physical book a relaxing alternative. Reading large print when travelling can also be helpful, especially when being jostled around.
With the challenges facing libraries currently, not everyone can access the large print service where so many have enjoyed these valuable resources over many years. such as provided by F. A. Thorpe Publishing.
Whatever the reason for choosing or preferring a large print book, I hope you enjoy Discovering Ellie.
Choice is important, which is why Discovering Ellie will still be available in an eBook format on Kindle.
Let’s begin with your beautiful new novel, ‘The Wives of King Canute’.When did the inspiration for this amazing project strike?
‘The Wives of King Canute’ is a project that’s been a long time growing. My fascination with Vikings began when I was eleven, when in winter my mother would drive my sister and me to the Isle of Sheppey, and I’d walk along the sea-wall, looking out at the grey sea, and imagine, appearing over the horizon, the bright-sailed boats of the Vikings we were learning about at school. When I was married we’d stay every summer with my mother-in-law in the Isle of Man, with its many relics of its long-ago Viking rulers, from overgrown ship burials surrounded by wild flowers to castles poised on the rim of the sea.
In 2014 I went to the amazing exhibition about Vikings at the British Museum, which rekindled my enthusiasm for them – very romantic figures in my imagination – and I began to read more about them. When I came across the story of King Canute’s two wives I thought that would be a good basis for a novel, with plenty of conflict.
Would you describe it as a labour of love?
Absolutely. First because of the subject matter, and secondly because I love writing.
How much of a personal challenge has it been from first completed draft to publication?
I’d nearly completed the first draft when we moved house, and then I had problems with my own and family illness – in other words, life took over from writing! Also I wasn’t sure what to do with it – I’d had five agents, none of whom had ever sold any of my work, so I didn’t want to go that route again. I hadn’t earned much from the digital publishers who’d published my three previous novels. So I spent a very long time dithering and doing nothing, tinkering with it now and again to make it as strong as I could. In the end I’ve decided to try self-publishing and see how that works.
It’s quite likely I’d never have got round to publishing it if it hadn’t been for the enormous support, and pushing, I had from friends. I’m very grateful for that.
Your previous novels have been set in different periods of history. If it was possible to travel back in time, is there a specific period you would like to visit?
If so, why?
Yes – the late Tudor period – provided I was fairly well off, of course! I’ve lived in Kent and Essex and have always loved visiting old houses, imagining what it was like to live there.
And that period seems so alive, full of excitement and new ideas, from explorers discovering unknown lands to amazing writers, such as Shakespeare and Donne.
I love the idea of hibernating like the hazel dormouse as described on your website. Have you always had a love of nature and a poetic soul?
Yes, I’ve always had a love of nature. Till I was ten I lived in Trinidad and Tobago where my father managed a small coconut estate and my mother raised ducks and turkeys, so just about all I knew was the natural world. That’s where I feel most at home, and happiest, now.
I’m not quite sure what a poetic soul is – I certainly used to daydream a lot, and I do love writing poetry, most especially that set in the natural world.
Would it be an accurate statement to say that your protagonists are strong women who face and overcome many and varied harsh life challenges?
Yes. I find they’re very interesting to write about. And as a writer and a reader I’d never have much sympathy with a person whose life was very comfortable.
How long do you spend researching a novel?
It depends on the demands of the novel. ‘The Wives of King Canute’ needed a lot of research because I didn’t know much about the period at all – only my romantic visions of Vikings! In it I used the historical timeline as the main structure of the plot. My novel ‘The Clock-mender’ didn’t need much research, because I knew its Swedish setting very well, and I had the seven-page account of what happened written by the man on whom the novel is based – the rest is mainly imagination. I don’t do all the research at the beginning. I like, for example, to go to relevant places to top up my experience – for example, one cold Christmas I went to Hampton Court Palace and watched Tudor dancers, which helped me write a scene in ‘‘The Girl in the Great House’. I hadn’t known when I started the novel that it was going to have that scene in it.
Is it the character, era, conflict or a random fact that triggers your imagination?
All four of them trigger my imagination. In ‘The Wives of King Canute’ it was the conflict between two women from very different backgrounds, but married to the same man, that intrigued me and got me thinking. At the same time I wanted to try writing a novel set in the Viking period.
Your own childhood in Trinidad and then Tobago must have been in stark contrast to life in the UK. Do you think that this experience influenced your work?
I was ten when I came to live in the UK. My childhood was for the most part very happy, but quite isolated, and life in the UK did feel very strange at first – just coping with socialisation in a large school, for example. This has influenced my work in that most of my protagonists are outsiders in some way.
How did you branch into writing for children?
I actually began by writing for children, writing stories for my two sons. When the younger one came home from primary school, I knew I was on the right lines if he wanted to read what I’d written that day before he attacked the biscuit tin. I went on to write primary literacy books, and was always concerned to make them as interesting as possible to children.
Do you think the market has changed drastically in your lifetime, or do you think that technology aside, children still just love a good story?
Children still love a good story. Just think of the success of the Harry Potter novels.
What advice would you give your younger self regarding becoming an author?
Always finish what you start writing. I never did at first – just had dozens of beginnings. That’s how come I’ve finally published “The Wives of King Canute” nine years after first starting it! I hope you’ll read it and enjoy it.
I am really looking forward to reading The Wives of Canute which will be free on Kindle 23rd February to 25th.
Thank you for taking time out to discuss your fascinating career and latest work.
If you have enjoyed reading this interview or have any questions, please feel free to like and comment below.
Fifty novellas ago, I began writing love stories each wrapped around an adventure, set against the rugged beauty of the North Riding of Yorkshire. These found their home in the Commonwealth library market and from this base a further six novels have evolved.
When To Love Honour and Obey published by Sapere Books, was reviewed by a fellow author, he described it as ‘Where Poldark meets Heathcliff’ – I was delighted.
I have always loved reading both fiction and non-fiction exploring the Regency period. I enjoy the romance whether written from the perspective of the rigid society of London’s ‘Ton’, so beautifully portrayed by Georgette Heyer and more recently Julia Quinn, or the melodrama of the darker more menacing shadows of Daphne du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn.
Basically, my tastes cross genres within the period, from Jane Austen’s and the Bronte’s classics to E.V. Thompson’s Cornish sagas, or Bernard Cornwell’s action and adventure series about the rifleman who rose from the ranks, Richard Sharpe.
I have worked as a creative writing tutor for years and one piece of advice commonly given to authors starting out, is to write about what you know. That does not mean that you must know everything first – no one can, especially where murder and mayhem is involved. Without a time-travel machine, a writer today cannot depict a bygone age with total accuracy capturing the language, attitude, beliefs, habits, understanding of people centuries ago when travel and knowledge were limited.
Research is the key! Whatever the genre; romance, crime, thriller, horror, fantasy or any other preferred, the author must accrue enough knowledge beforehand to write their story and make it credible and believable to today’s readership. Jane Austen was of course writing in her own time; about the world she knew.
Research can be all encompassing when it is focussed on a topic you are enthusiastic about. In first drafts ‘info-dumps’ can creep into a manuscript, slowing the pace of the story. Which is where an editor’s skills are needed to take out the non-essential information, as the author will always know more that the reader needs to about their created ‘world’.
When I began writing I thought about the ‘write about what you know’ advice and started exploring my home area. The North Yorkshire Moors and the bay towns from Whitby to Saltburn provided a dramatic backdrop for many of my stories.
Saltburn-by-the-Sea had its own infamous ‘King of Smugglers’ John Andrew, who in 1780 was landlord of the unique Ship Inn, which nestles to this day under the shadow of the 110m high Huntcliff. My fictitious Ebton is based on Saltburn, my Coble Inn nestles in the shadow of Stangcliffe, the headland based on Huntcliff.
“We’re on Stangcliffe, the headland!” Joshua exclaimed, as realisation hit him harder than the force of the wind. He was inches away from a sheer drop to the sea below where sharp-edged rocks hid under each of the crashing waves…
This Jurassic coastline encompasses rugged high cliffs and sweeping flat sandy bays. The wild moor inland would have been crossed by locals along small tracks for centuries by the Regency period. The dales, areas of fertile farmland and woodland, dropped down from the moors, with ancient abbeys and small villages of stone-built cottages nestled within – but cottage industries were being replaced as manufacturing developed in the growing towns causing population shifts, consequently impacting livelihoods, Secrets, due to the Industrial Revolution, a theme resonated in To Have and To Hold, Sapere Books.
Unrest was growing nationally, the Luddite movement triggered fear in Parliament that revolution would happen in England as it had in France. In Phoebe’s Challenge, brother and sister are hunted as machine-breakers – punishment was anything from a fine, to hanging or transportation to Australia.
Friends & Foes Book 2
My books are not dark, but touch on the darker side of human-nature and society, Betrayal, ultimately showing that love and justice will win the day. In real life things may not always work out that way, but in fiction – which is a form of escape from reality – in my stories at least, things do.
The world of Valerie Holmes has the tagline ‘Love the adventure’ – a sentiment that I hope my readers will share.
Beyond the book cover, plot and protagonist, which has a greater influence on your choice as a reader: the physical setting or the period in which it is set?
Please share your thoughts and preferences.
If you are interested in writing, and want to create your own fiction, but need some professional guidance or support, please contact me via my manuscript appraisal page.
I am delighted to announce that Discovering Ellie is now available in Large Print Paperback for those who cannot manage an eReader – just click here
“It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage.”
Jane Austen, Emma
When George III was declared unfit to function as monarch his son, the Prince of Wales, became the Prince Regent. George the younger had little interest in politics, leaving the wars with France to the politicians, whilst he indulged his friends and himself with a lavish lifestyle of elegance and fashion. The Ton – from the French phrase ‘le bon ton’ meaning ‘elegant style’ represent the fashionable society of London – an elite group. The divide between the extremes of the rich of Mayfair, London, and the poor of St Giles, living in the city slums, could not have been more dramatic.
In Parliament seats in the House of Lords were inherited and in the House of Commons could be corruptly bought, so the working and fighting man and the women who relied upon them, who made up most of the population, had little representation to improve their lot. My stories are set in the north of England away from the Ton and Parliament, but life was influenced by their wars, laws, and taxes.
In the above quote Jane Austen expressed a commonly held view, because women of the time had few legal rights as their lives were basically controlled by men.
Upper- and middle-class single females, under the age of twenty-one in England and Wales, were usually dependent upon their father or nearest male relative. If their male relatives were honest, caring, and loving family members then amicable matches secured the future of both parties, in hopefully wedded bliss, once the dowry, pin money, inheritance and jointure, in the event of death of the husband, had been legally agreed.
Book 2
However, fiction requires drama and conflict to spark a good plot, driven by engaging characters. It also reflects the unpalatable truth of the past.
If their male relative were greedy (For Richer, For Poorer), an irresponsible gambler (The Baronet’s Prize) or an overbearing parent (Hannah of Harpham Hall) then the young woman would have few options, left to her own devices unless they had the help of a hero, or a woman of independent means.
When Ellie (Discovering Ellie) is faced with a marriage match, she tries to diplomatically decline her aunt’s intentions without causing further conflict…
“I am not worldly, Aunt. I cannot think how I could make such a man happy…”
Mrs Hemming laughed. “Well, we agree on one point at least, you cannot think!”
Ellie ignored the insult and continued in her conciliatory tone. “I fear I would only annoy him. Therefore, I wish to politely decline this marriage proposal, discreetly of course, before it is made public. I do not want to cause further embarrassment to anyone. Then he would be able to find a more suitable companion, equal to the task.”
Ellie is completely dependent upon her aunt’s charity until she turns twenty-one. This dependency drives the plot, as Ellie must discover who she is, why she has a recurring nightmare, and how she can avoid a match that is being arranged ‘for her own good’ before it is publicly announced. This latter point is especially important because once it was made public, to break such a legal proclamation would be considered scandalous. Ellie is naïve and knows little of the law, or of the greater world, as many young women of the time.
Book 4
In a situation where an engagement is made between two people if broken, then it could result in a legal action of ‘breach of promise’. At the very least a reputation could be tarnished or destroyed as happened with Lucas Huntley – In Sickness and in Health.
In England, the Marriage Act of 1753 declared both parties had to have their parents’ consent if under 21. However, in Scotland this was not the case, hence the rush for elopements to the nearest place to wed north of the border, such as the famous, Gretna Green, which provided a reason for a mad dash in For Richer, For Poorer.
Friends & Foes Book 1
It is often claimed that fact is often stranger than fiction, but with historical facts the trigger for dramatic fiction is constantly there. Although women were ruled by the law, deemed unable to run their own lives, own their own wealth or children when married, deny their husband sex, or have rights to defend themselves when employed, there would have been plenty who questioned why this was so, such as:
“I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.” Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
Lydia Fletcher in Betrayal was so influenced. Heroines need to have obstacles to overcome, situations that are a mystery, and the realisation that not all men look upon them in the same light.
Being single by choice was not really an option for a woman, no matter how much she desired to be the arbiter of her own fate. Unless her social status and personal income had been legally entailed and could support her, like the independent Miss Parkes of Penny Manor who befriends Ellie, she would be dependent upon others.
If young women were sufficiently educated, they could try to earn a living as a companion or a governess/teacher, but these were lonely situations with no long-term security. Uneducated or poorer women had less desirable options such as going into service, leaving the cottage to work within the factory or working the land to feed their families. In, To Love, Honour and Obey, Beth is an orphan who has no family or male relative to protect her from the system that was supposed to protect her.
Book 1
Prostitution was an option for the truly desperate. Few climbed the social ladder to a happy and long life even as a rich man’s mistress. Although some beauties and actresses managed to acquire rich patrons, such as the exceptional Harriett Mellon, born a pauper in Cork, Ireland but who ended up married to Thomas Coutts of the banking family, who successfully inherited and managed a fortune..
Servants were supposed to be chaste and could be dismissed without reference or notice if they fell pregnant. They were also open to abuse from their employers, as happens to the kindly Georgina in Betrayal. Again, as I write love stories that are aimed to provide adventure and uplift rather than depress, Georgina’s future is much brighter than many a maid who found themselves pregnant and thrown out on the streets without a reference, through no fault of their own.
Thank you for taking time out to read my blog and visit my website. Please like or leave any comments or questions below or contact me directly via the form on my Manuscript Appraisal page. If any of the above themes appeal just click the title or cover to be directed to the Amazon page.
Good news! I do like to share good news… In Sickness and In Health, published in eBook and print by SapereBooks is now available as a traditional large print paperback from @Ulvercroft. Copies can be ordered via Commonwealth libraries. Our libraries have had a hard few years, but there are people who find it difficult to manage an eReader so it is lovely to see this market niche is still catered for.
Thank you, Margaret, for taking time out of your busy schedule as a novelist, journalist and teacher of creative writing to chat to me and share some of your New Year news!
It must have been exciting to end 2023 as a ‘hot new pick’ with your Charton Minster Trilogy, published by Joffe Books. What was the inspiration behind this wartime trilogy?
Thank you for inviting me to be your guest, Valerie. I’m very happy to be here!
The inspiration for the first novel in the Charton Minster Trilogy was the famous Red Cross recruiting poster for nursing volunteers to serve alongside the professional nurses working in the various theatres of operation during World War One. This image has reproduced thousands of times, so I’m sure it must have inspired plenty of other novelists, too.
Are there plans to release more of the series in 2024?
Joffe has acquired the rights to all my novels originally published by Choc Lit, so there are four more books in the pipeline, to be released either individually or as sets.
Creative Writing Matters seems to go from strength to strength. What events and competitions do you have lined up for this year?
At the moment, the Creative Writing Matters team is reading its way through nearly 400 entries for the latest Exeter Novel Prize, which will be awarded in April this year.
The CWM team: Sophie Duffy, Cathy Hartigan and Margaret
Can you give some tips on what makes a competition entry stand out?
Try to open the entry at a point which will get readers asking questions – for example, whose story is this, what does the central character want, how might the central character go about getting what he/she wants?
Let this central character face some kind of challenge.
Be wary of starting a story with a description of the scenery or an account of the central character’s life to date.
If the competition asks for a synopsis of a novel, novelette or even a short story, make sure the synopsis covers the entire story and explains how it ends. Anything else won’t tell the organisers/readers if the entrant can construct a satisfying story. It’s (comparatively) easy to start a story. It’s much harder to develop it and to offer readers a great ending that will live on in these readers’ memories – and also encourage to read the authors’ next stories or books.
What would you say is your perfect writing/teaching balance in life now along with other pursuits?
I shall never achieve a perfect balance in life! Right now, as I explained above, my energies are focused on reading competition entries, some of which are going to need reports. I’ll catch up with my magazine work later this year. As for other pursuits – if you mean hobbies, I’m determined to get my garden into shape this spring. But I say this every year, and it hasn’t happened yet.
The publishing industry has changed vastly over the span of your career to date. Are you optimistic about the dramatic and dynamic current trends?
I suspect AI is going to become a really mixed blessing for writers of fiction. But digital publishing has made it easier for new writers to get in on the action, and commercial publishers are no longer the only gatekeepers, which is good for those who prefer to self-publish.
Thank you for chatting to me, and all best wishes for your continued writing success in 2024!
The New Year often provides opportunities and challenges – if you are an author what are your writing goals this year?
If you have always wanted to write a novel/novella/short story, but feel daunted or lost as to where to start, then check out CWM or my manuscript appraisal page where you can submit a query.
All best wishes for a happy and healthy 2024 to all!
Smuggling in Regency times was rife in the rugged and isolated ‘bay towns’ of what was the North Riding of Yorkshire. Although the skill and daring of those involved in the trade can be admired, there was a dark and far-reaching side to their activities.
In my books there is a recurring element of smuggling showing how it could have affected the lives of those within the region and, inadvertently, helped Napoleon in his war against our own nation.
Being an island, smuggling had been prevalent for many years within the coastal communities nationwide. With a much smaller population than today, most of the inhabitants of these places would be either involved, or at least aware, of contraband being stored or moved through their communities.
This extract from Rudyard Kipling’s’ poem A Smuggler’s Song captured it beautifully:
If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse’s feet, Don’t go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street, Them that ask no questions isn’t told a lie. Watch the wall my darling while the Gentlemen go by.
The reasons the trade existed were complex but huge import taxes applied to certain consumables made brandy, tobacco, tea, silk and many other desired goods far too expensive for most people, instantly creating opportunity to fill a demand illegally.
Napoleon Bonaparte had no wish to lose the income France received from this illicit trade. So, he ordered the French Channel ports be kept open for business. This also created wealth for the organiser of the smuggling gangs’ pockets, some of which were part of the British landed gentry. Their subordinates lower down the chain of command were often unaware of the identity of the ‘top man’ who could only be known by a select few.
This trade was open to being used for further nefarious purposes, as free traders earned even more money by selling government secrets. This shared intelligence could cover troop deployments/movements/logistics, coastal patrols and the names and responsibilities of important people. This information had its value in coin, which Napoleon desperately needed to fuel his war effort. It was aiding treason.
Government agents tried to uncover such traitors. In Phoebe’s Challenge Rev. Matthew Fenton provides information to uncover the local gangs. In The Friends and Foes series, Lord Farrington is a semi-retired Intelligence Officer who has been given the task of unearthing a traitor in Betrayal, but his role is concerned with insurgence and threats to the government at home too. This is a time of hardship and much perceived threats, externally from France and her allies and internally from those deeply affected by the loss of livelihood and the industrialisation, which was bringing huge wealth to a new ‘middle-class’ and displaced communities from the countryside to town and mills.
Revolution on our shores was a fear.
Lord Farrington discusses the situation with Dr. Samuel Speers, in Betrayal…
“I already know they are involved in the business of financing the trade in contraband. But what else? Lord Bagby has influential friends who he meets in his clubs – does he pass on information to our enemies as well as coin? Is he a traitor through and through? These facts I must seek out.”
Samuel looked up, quite shocked. “You think they are traitors. Many people locally dabble in smuggling to eke out their meagre livings…”
Farrington leaned forward. “Stop my friend if you wish to remain so. Smugglers give coin to Napoleon’s war effort – they help our enemy and our men die. I do not debate the taxes set, but the way they fund our enemies for selfish gain. Do not be so naïve. I shall bring down the Bagby’s and this man Jed Webb who eludes our Riding Officers.”
Villagers could earn some coin to supplement their meagre incomes by hiding contraband in amazingly inventive places or help to convey goods on arrival from larger vessels at sea in their own fishing boats to hide them on land. Tubmen were men paid to convey the goods from delivery to their next destination. They needed to be strong, often landsmen, who knew the area and walked the trods and snickets that linked the bay towns and crossed the open moors.
The northeast coast leant itself perfectly to this. Many of these coastal villages have long, flat beaches of fine sand, where the local ‘cobles’, the shallow draught fishing boats could be easily drawn up and the villagers knew how to avoid the scars, the vicious fingers of rocks that extended from the shore. Fishing was the main source of employment on the coast. Whitby and Robin Hood’s Bay are well known for their smuggling links but the coast between Saltburn and Redcar was almost as notorious towards the end of the eighteenth century. The bay towns in my books of Ebton and Allunby are fictitious villages based on the sweeping bay of Saltburn to Coatham, where I grew up and hold a strong affection for.
Three organisations were created to try and stop this trade. The Revenue Cruisers, the Riding Officers and the Preventive Water Guard.
Revenue Cruisers patrolled offshore in ships that with full sail could often overtake smaller vessels once located. The problem they faced was locating ships amongst the many who sailed along the German Ocean, and also the honesty of the crews who were on occasion known to work with some of the smugglers in exchange for a cut of the goods, made discerning their whereabouts even harder.
Riding Officers were based around the coast, living near the suspected communities and riding the coast to try and prevent the collusion between land and sea. A nearly impossible task.
The Preventive Waterguard was established in 1809. They had houses around the coast – Watch Houses, and smaller boat crews which would patrol their stretch of coastland.
Between all three branches the tide was slowly turning in the governments favour. In 1822 they were incorporated into one force, The Coast Guard, charged with stopping the import of these highly taxed goods. They employed ex sailors, strong, tough and knowledgeable who needed employment after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
This led to a gradual decline of demand and consequently causing the amount of smuggling that was committed throughout the first half of the nineteenth century to dwindle.
Before this happened though the battles fought to catch the smugglers and traitors lay the seed of many a good tale, some yet to be told.
Thank you for taking the time to visit my page. If you like the article please hit the like button and share where you are visiting from in the comments below.
Christmastide in Regency times was a prolonged period of celebration, compared to our modern holiday, for those who could enjoy it. Public holidays did not exist so for the working class it was not a given that the day would be given
It began on December 6th, Saint Nicholas’ Day. This was marked by exchanging small gifts.
Christmastide ended on January 6th, otherwise known as ‘Twelfth Night’, marking Epiphany.
For those who could celebrate Saint Nicholas’s Day, it was a period for parties, suppers, and balls to be held. But for all who had them it was a time for family and friends.
This period did carry the feeling of ‘goodwill’ so it was expected that charity would be given to the poor, particularly on December 21st, Saint Thomas’s Day when the widows of soldiers who had died in the Napoleonic wars would go ‘Thomasing’, calling at the kitchen doors seeking alms or food parcels.
On Christmas Eve holly and evergreens would be gathered and brought into the house to decorate and bring in the fresh small of nature. Garlands and wreaths would be woven with rosemary, bay, and laurel, and then embellished with apples, oranges, ribbons, and holly berries.
Mistletoe brought its own added spice to the festivities as kissing balls or boughs were made from it, a tradition that still lingers today. With each exchanged kiss a berry was plucked, once all the berries were gone then the kissing had to stop.
A candle was lit on Christmas Eve and the Yule log was brought in wrapped in hazel twigs and custom stated that it should be lit with a remnant of last year’s log. The fire would then be kept burning as long as possible and be at the heart of family gatherings; a small piece being saved for the next year.
On Christmas Day people attended church and then the gentry had a celebratory dinner of turkey, venison, or goose for the gentry, followed by plum pudding. Much of the seasonal food could be prepared ahead of time with a favourite being cold, brawn pies.
The next day, Saint Stephen’s Day, was a day for charity. Richer people gave servants and tenants their ‘Christmas boxes’, usually gifts of money, hence it becomes known as ‘Boxing Day’.
Finally, on the twelfth night there might be a party held with much dancing and singing. Hot spiced, mulled, wine was offered, and a special cake made to share amongst all the members of the household.
Games such as ‘bobbing for apples,’ and ‘snapdragon’ – a game where raisins were soaked in a brandy in a large shallow bowl, were enjoyed. A more challenging one involved candles being blown out and the brandy lit, people then had to try and grab a raisin and eat it without burning themselves – health and safety was yet to be implemented!
Men’s names were put into a hat so that ladies could then pick a name out to be her partner for the night.
A C17 yew wood wassail bowl.
A wassail bowl was often carried from house to house, filled with warmed ale, mulled wine, or punch, sometimes accompanied by the singing of carols.
The feeling of goodwill to all humankind was the message of the season. It depended on where you were on the social scale from impoverished to rich as to how much you could be a part of the tradition, but the feeling and love shared at this time was priceless then, just as it is today.
Merry Christmas and season’s greetings to all my readers!
Ellie encounters a handsome stranger, when escaping the claustrophobic presence of her widowed aunt, Mrs Hemming in The Old Hall. She is initially distressed and annoyed, until he introduces himself as Mr. Montgomery Cookson causing Ellie’s dark clouds to instantly lift, for she knows they will formally meet again. Mrs Hemming homed the deserted Ellie, whilst bringing up her two cousins, Dorcas and Sybil, despite the ruinous reputation of her mother for deserting her husband and child. Ellie had been shocked and scared, when infirmed she was expected to marry Mrs. Hemming’s own cousin, Mr. MONTGOMERY COOKSON. But has Ellie met her match in Mr. Cookson? Will her future be as grim as she envisaged? When Fate has cast a shadow over her life for so long, can destiny shine a light into Ellie’s world? Will Ellie finally discover who she really is?
Micah, the charismatic hero of Secrets, encounters a man trap and saves a young lad from a terrible fate as the jaws snap shut.
Godalming Museum
These devices were cruel, vicious deterrents that were set in the ground and when the central plate was pressed the jaws clamped shut, maiming the unsuspecting trespassers.
“Micah swung a leg over a fallen tree trunk, but then, as the metal’s edge caught his eye, he froze. He saw the danger and the notion of his peaceful village suddenly dispersed – man traps, never before had he seen such things around Dibbledale. The woodland had always been open to all.”
Man traps have been used since the 18th century as the amount of what had been common ground or shared woodland began to be increasingly enclosed by unscrupulous and greedy landowners.
Private landowners saw no reason to share the game that lived on the land with the ‘common folk.’ The 19th century progressed but so did poverty – rapidly, and many families struggled. Large pieces of what had previously been common land, free for all to graze their flocks and hunt on had been enclosed into private estates.
The Napoleonic Wars with France had incurred huge costs which had been passed on through taxation and by raising the cost of basic foods. Men had left to fight so their homes, wives and children had to cope alone. These were desperate times.
Beamish Museum
Man traps were cheaper than employing additional gamekeepers and were perfectly legal. The only proviso being that signs should be posted about the traps, or anyone injured could claim compensation. However, this aspect was not widely publicised, and it was hardly affective when literacy was rare.
Hunger motivated poaching gangs, breaking the law to feed their own families, and selling excess on. This upscaling of illegal activity meant landowners were more aware of the losses than they would have been with only occasional rabbits or birds disappearing.
Man traps were an inhumane method of control, which could maimed and sometimes killed their victims. Easily disguised by putting leaves, twigs, or grass over them so that any foot, hoof or paw would spring the trap shut.
Ryedale Museums
They generally had a central plate with toothed jaws that would be held back by a spring until triggered when they would come together with considerable force leading to a bloodthirsty and gruelling result.
They were made illegal in 1827. Following this ‘humane’ man traps were created. A hole was dug, and the trap placed in it. These were then covered with suitable undergrowth. They still had a central plate, but the jaws were no longer toothed. No doubt it was not without pain, but it did not maim as it would previously. These had to be unlocked by the gamekeeper who had the key, but I imagine, extraordinarily little sympathy was given to the poacher who was then caught and sentenced.
The Friends and Foes series, for lovers of romantic adventures is now available on Amazon and #KindleUnlimited. Just click here to take a peek!
When did your love of novels, especially of the romance genre, begin?
My love for novels began when I could read, so, age five. I fell into the romance genre in my mid-twenties when I was working and commuting very long hours and was very receptive to the escapism romance novels offered. I noticed that no matter how dramatic the novel, as long as I could rely on there being a happy ever after, I could just switch off for a few hours. I never looked back.
What is the attraction of the Victorian era that so appeals to you?
It was a time of great economic, social, and technological changes, which gave rise to social movements such as the women’s rights movement and the labour movement that we still benefit from today. It means I could write heroines who are authentic and plausible for the era all while I can still find myself relating to them 140 years later. In a way, it allows me to explore how far we have come, and which issues remain that some people have already tried to change for more than a century.
Bringing Down the Duke is the first engrossing novel in The League of Extraordinary Women series. The attraction between the two main characters is undeniable and absorbing. The protagonist attends Oxford against her family’s wishes, by being offered a scholarship from the Suffragettes. Is the series based upon the unsung heroines who paved the way for women today?
It is not based on any woman in particular but is certainly inspired by the first group of women students at Oxford and by the early suffragists, and their many allies whose names we will never know. The fight to access higher education took women decades; even after women had enrolled at Oxford for the first time in 1879, it should still take another 40 years before they could sit the same exams as the male students. The fight for women’s rights, especially the right to vote, was even longer, going back to the 18th century to Mary Wollstonecraft if you will. We hear quite a lot about the suffragettes, the militants of the Edwardian era, but countless women before them laid the groundwork for the charge and I loved learning more about them and their tactics while I wrote the novels.
Which three of the many ‘extraordinary women’ from the past do you admire the most and why?
Looking at the late Victorian era/early Edwardian era, it would be Annie Kenny, Christabel Pankhurst, and Cornelia Sorabji.
Annie Kenney was the only working-class suffragette to ever hold a leadership position in the suffragette movement after working her way from a Northern factory up to travelling the world and talking to heads of state for the cause. She was responsible for the incident that turned some suffragists militant and caused them to form the suffragette branch. She was also very likely bisexual. Her autobiography was fabulously insightful and stayed with me for a long time. She came across as incredibly loyal, brave, and funny.
Christabel was the strategic head and in some ways the heart of the suffragette movement. She held a law degree from Manchester University though as a woman she was not allowed to practice law at the time. What impresses me about her is the mix of both fanatic grit as well as level-headedness which she displayed for the entire duration of the movement.
Cornelia Sorabji was the first woman of colour and first female law student at Oxford University in 1889. When she arrived at Oxford, she already held a first-class degree from Bombay University, and she successfully fought tooth and nail to be treated like her fellow male students at Oxford. Back in India, she was not allowed to practice law for over a decade, but she found her own niche to assist women and girls in legal matters and had over 600 female legal wards and several successful pro-women social policies under her belt by the time she returned to Britain in her later years.
You have a personal connection to Oxford University having studied for a master’s degree there and an advanced creative writing course. From your experience, would you say that women academics have achieved equality there alongside their male counterparts?
A lot of brilliant women are hard at work at Oxford and fill important positions; since 2016, we even have a female Vice chancellor (Louise Richardson). My heroines would love to see it. However, personally I think female academics won’t achieve real equality in the workplace as long as they are compelled to choose between family and an academic career, or have to somehow juggle both, as this is something their male counterparts still don’t really have to worry about unless they are committed to fully sharing the care-work out of principle. The statistics still show a sharp drop in female academics from third year PhD to actual tenure, and we can already see that the pandemic disproportionally affected the output of female academics. Successful academic work requires you to think original thoughts and to write cutting-edge papers. It’s harder to do that amid years of sleep-deprivation and a mind loaded with other people’s needs and schedules. Without fathers stepping up or affordable external assistance, we’ll always have shining examples of some women having it all, but the overall statistics will probably continue to tell a different story.
How challenging was and how did you go about writing the perspective of Queen Victoria in Bringing Down the Duke?
I had read her letters to her acquaintances where she raged about women’s rights activists and called for them to be whipped. Her official stance was also anti-suffrage and minced no words. Her close friendship with Disraeli and her behind-the-scenes meddling in politics when she was younger, is also no secret. It therefore wasn’t challenging as I put words into her mouth she herself had either written down verbatim or were very much in the spirit of her position. I guess it helped that I always had her actual photographs before my mind’s eye rather than the TV version played by the lovely Jenna Coleman.
Did it surprise you that such a prominent female monarch did not support women’s rights?
Not really. The queen saw herself as set apart from regular humans, and the dividing line between progressive people and those who want to keep things as they are does not neatly run along gender lines, it never has. A lot of women back then felt more comfortable with upholding the structures that suppressed them and harnessed the narrowly defined power allocated to the role of mother and wife instead. And sometimes, women’s reasons to be anti-suffrage were simply due to clashes with their other interests. For example, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was founded and run by women in the late 19th century, and they were anti-suffrage. Why? Because the suffragists and later suffragettes continued to use plumes as accessories.
How have you kept mentally and physically fit during the recent pandemic?
Unfortunately, I didn’t do a good job on either front, so I’m afraid I have no valuable tips to share here…
When life returns to the new ‘normal’ what do you look forward to doing when not writing or researching?
I look forward to the brain fog lifting. An end to this limbo of being unable to plan anything with certainty, all while we can’t really be spontaneous, either. I look forward to not having to worry about schools shutting down again and how the kids are affected by the situation; or about loved ones falling ill. I’d love to ditch the mask, and to hop on a train or plane to see family and friends I haven’t seen in nearly two years. I would like to offer my readers an in-person book signing. And I want to go to the movies and eat popcorn and not flinch when someone in the row behind me coughs.
When and where did your affinity with Scotland begin?
I think it began when watching nature documentaries about the Highlands when I was a child. It was sealed when I moved to Britain and dated a mountaineer from St Andrews. The first time we entered Glen Coe around 15 years ago, it literally took my breath away. I felt moved to tears, it felt like coming home, when I had no prior connection to the place. Odd how that happens sometimes. Before the pandemic, I would regularly go up to Scotland a few times a year to stay with friends and to go hiking. Edinburgh is my favourite city in the world. I have been invited to RARE, a big romance author event, in Edinburgh in 2022, and I can’t wait to go and meet readers and colleagues.
The Portrait of a Scotsman (Published 7th September) has a Scottish hero, when and where did the inspiration for this novel begin?
Inspiration for the story sparked during my research for my debut Bringing Down the Duke, where I came across photographs of Victorian women in trousers. The women in question were pit-brow lassies—they worked on the coalfields and frequently underground. Their existence was entirely at odds with the ideal Victorian image of women as the dainty Angels in the House, and I knew I wanted to highlight these remarkable women in one of the books in the series.
This, and my love for the Hades and Persephone myth, come together in the hero, Lucian Blackstone, a successful self-made Scotsman who he began his journey underground in a Scottish colliery.
What is next for Evie?
I’m currently trying to finish the fourth and final book in the series, and I for the last year I have been playing around with an idea for a fifth book. We’ll see what comes from that.
Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule. I’m looking forward to reading Portrait of a Scotsman!
Cornish sagas, or Bernard Cornwell’s action and adventure series about the rifleman who rose from the ranks, Richard Sharpe.
When I began writing I thought about the ‘write about what you know’ advice and started exploring my home area. The North Yorkshire Moors and the bay towns from Whitby to Saltburn provided a dramatic backdrop for many of my stories.
Lord Farrington discusses the situation with Dr. Samuel Speers, in 
valerie holmes, author 