As the autumn grows closer and deeper it is time to take stock of the year. I have managed, with help, to keep the journal entries up to date on a monthly basis. I also make sure that the Facebook page and Twitter get their fair share of...
The song says that summertime is easy; this summer in Southwest France has been hot rather than easy. A canicule struck twice. That word is used to describe the weather when several consecutive days have very high temperatures and the night time...
July began with a bit of a bang for me. On the 3rd of July I was lucky enough to be given a review for Isabella of Angouleme, The Tangled Queen, Part 2 on Helen Hollick’s site, Discovering Diamonds. https://discoveringdiamonds.blogspot.com/ Her...
You can’t judge a book by its cover You can’t judge a book by its cover is something we have all heard said. A phrase that has the meaning that very often an outward appearance does not give the true picture of a person, telling you not to be...
The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries This month I went to London and saw these splendid galleries, up high in the triforium of Westminster Abbey. You cross Poets’ Corner and there is a new tower installed into the tight space of Poets’ Corner...
Colette the French writer, the author of Gigi, very much liked cats. As she said, ‘There are no ordinary cats.’ And indeed there are not, and we may find as Colette did, that ‘My cat does not talk as respectfully to me as I do to her.’ One...
Here is something that gives factual background to Isabella Of Angouleme: The Tangled Queen. It explains the rivalry that existed and how slowly the relationship changed after centuries of war. It was a delight to write and be back in the 13th...
In Isabella’s time communication was by messenger and letters, written on parchment and vellum and the seals were all important. She treasured hers as Queen of England. Actually a gold matrix that is still in the archives in Angoulême. The...
LE MARQUISAT DINING CLUB, GARDES LE PONTAROUX, 16320WEDNESDAY, 3rd APRIL AT 10.30 a.m. TALK AND LUNCH WITH WRITER ERICA LAINE AUTHOR OF THE TRILOGYISABELLA OF ANGOULEMETHE TANGLED QUEEN Erica Laine is the president of an Aquitaine Historical...
Christmas and the New Year are over but winter still lingers, come to a warm cosy place where you can buy a coffee, a glass of wine and a book! I will be talking about my trilogy, Isabella of Angoulême, The Tangled Queen to Becky about my...
Seasons turn Christmas in France is not the frenzy that seems to come over England and the US. Especially in deeply rural France where life was tuned to the seasons and agricultural life for so long that it is difficult to see much change...
St Paul de Roche On November 3rd there was a salon du livres in St Paul de Roches, the second such event held there and I was invited to join the occasion. St Paul is in the north east of the Dordogne, at the beginning of the Massif Central...
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