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...
In October I was asked by Kate Rose, who writes for Bonjour Limousin, if I would like to be interviewed for that on-line publication. Of course I said yes! Who doesn’t like answering questions about writing and their books? The Interview The...
October was a very significant month for Isabella, she was crowned Queen of England on 8 October 1200, aged about twelve. Her first child, a son who became Henry III was born on October 1st 1207, and on 19th October 1216 her husband King John...
A long hot summer in 2018, although France Meteo says it was not as hot as 2003. However night time temperatures stayed in the mid-20s, which is uncomfortable without a fan. At least no one had to wear layers and layers of clothes as they did in...
25 August 1200, Angoulême. On this day King John married Isabella of Angouleme. She was about 12 and he was 33. At that time it was canon law that a girl could be married at 12, and often they were, and even younger. But the marriages were not...
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