Christmas already?

My tenth book (Wow! that’s TENTH!) Christmas at Ladywell is published on Monday, 4th November as a digital-only e-book. As I wrote it partly in response to lots of ‘what happened next’ comments from readers, I really hope people enjoy it. I’ve never tried a novella before and wasn’t sure initially whether I’d have enough to say. Silly me – very few things stop me talking – so it started as a short story; developed into a long short story; turned into a novelette (which is a longer long short story). I finally totted up the word-count and found it was thirty thousand so it’s just under a third of the length of the original book, The House at Ladywell.

What’s interesting is that after my lovely publishers at Crooked Cat Books accepted it, I started to think of more secrets that the house could have and I’m considering adding three more sections to follow the Christmas one – Spring, Summer and Autumn making it a year at Ladywell. This would bring it up to book-length and it could perhaps come out as a paperback as well as digitally. Nothing definite yet and I have other projects on the go, but I realise I’m not ready to leave Ladywell behind!

On Monday there’ll be a Publication Day Push organised by the talented Rachel Gilbey of https://www.rachelsrandomresources.com She’s arranged for about thirty well-known book bloggers to post and tweet about Christmas at Ladywell, some of them with reviews, and I’m looking forward to reading their thoughts. Fingers crossed!

Here’s the Amazon link to buy it – a pre-Christmas treat for only £1.99  mybook.to/ChristmasatLadywell

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It’s a busy weekend because another book I’m involved in was published yesterday, 1st November. This is the second anthology edited by Alex Marchant, featuring short stories inspired by the story of Richard III. Full of fascinating tales it’s sold in aid of the Scoliosis Association UK and sufferers of this debilitating condition include Princess Eugenie of York and, of course, Richard III himself. (NOT a hunchback after all!) Here’s the cover and the link to buy in e-book or paperback on Amazon  mybook.to/RichardIIIAnthology

At the moment my website http://www.nicolaslade.com needs updating and is about to undergo some changes necessitated by the sad news I posted recently, ie the death of Keri Thomas, the dear friend who designed and ran it so successfully for years. It won’t be the same – no kind, calm response to my anguished pleas for help – but we’ll do our best!

Reviews & Recipes, Life in 1918 Part 2

Here we are, it’s out and it’s getting some lovely reviews already: ‘I couldn’t put it down. Not sure what I liked best, but I really liked the way you tell your story, even when the themes were most serious, with a touch of humour which somehow lightens the atmosphere all round, although we never underestimate the hardships either – I found myself laughing out loud at times. I saw a resemblance to the Cazalet series, but even more, I saw many shades of Angela Thirkell there. A lovely read.’
And while I’m about it, here’s another one: Another excellent cosy mystery by Nicola Slade. Not only is this a jolly good story with a cliffhanger ending it portrays life on the Home Front in 1918 without being mawkish or sensationalist. I love the details of the food; the struggle was real!

My 1918 heroine writing!

Even though the War opened up the prospect of many hitherto male-only jobs for women, middle-class girls with no particular training were still hampered by expectations of what was ‘suitable’. Christabel, the narrator of The Convalescent Corpse, contributes to the family income by writing Boys’ Own-style books aimed at young men in the army,with exciting titles such as ‘Prefects on Picket Duty’ – but she manages this by using a male pseudonym.

I’m glad that the reviewer above loved the details of the food and the shortages and rationing that made shopping for groceries a test of endurance and hope.Hampshire Pie is an example of shameless misrepresentation! on the part of the Home Chat editor who produced their March 1918 supplement: Plain Puddings & Cakes. It has no visible link with Hampshire and it’s not a pie! I had to include it, of course, considering the book is set in Hampshire – in Ramalley, a small market town halfway between Winchester and Southampton, that bears a surprising resemblance to Romsey!

Hampshire Pie – 1918

Hampshire Pie (Hot, Baked)

Apple is the nicest fruit to use for this but it is very good with rhubarb or any other fresh fruit

1 lb apples or soaked dried apple rings

1 pint water

2 ounces custard powder

1 tbs golden/amber/or ginger syrup, or other sweetener

Saltspoonful powdered cinnamon or nutmeg

Peel, core and slice apples. Boil the cores and peel in the water till quite soft, then drain off water, and save it.
Cover apples in a pan with water to half cover them. Simmer till soft, beat free from lumps with a fork. Add cinnamon and syrup and spread the pulp in a piedish.
Meanwhile, boil up the apple water. Mix the custard powder smoothly and thinly with a little cold water, pour it into the boiling apple liquid and stir for about five minutes, or according to directions on the packet.
Sweeten this mixture if necessary; a drop of vanilla is generally an improvement. Pour it over the apple pulp and bake in a moderate oven for about half and hour or until browned.
NB Ground rice or cornflour and just a little custard powder can be used if you like, instead of all custard powder. A scrap of margarine improves the flavour and increases the food value of the pudding.

Verdict – I love stewed apple so I was happy with this, though I made custard with skimmed milk instead of the apple water suggested – I felt that was a step too far towards authenticity! It’s a cheek to call it a pie, though I suppose it is cooked in a pie dish!

You can find The Convalescent Corpse in ebook and paperback all across Amazon. This is the UK link:https://amzn.to/2OskEpV
Please tell your friends – and if you enjoy this story of family struggles in wartime, a review on Amazon would be fabulous.

Diamonds and churches

I’ve been busy lately and keep forgetting to post on this blog. However, I’m rather chuffed to post this banner – and boast a bit! – because The House at Ladywell has been chosen as Book of the Month (August) in the Discovering Diamonds award, which is for historical novels. And, even more exciting, that means it’s on the shortlist for Book of the Year! I’m delighted that so many people have fallen in love with my book and there are now lots of 5* reviews on Amazon and Goodreadsd too. (Reviews are always welcome, potential readers usually check them out before buying!)

In other news, the Resident Engineer and I have been exploring old churches. The Church of St. Mary Magdalene at West Tisted, near Ropley in Hampshire, is tiny, peaceful and fascinating. There are ancient yew trees in the churchyard and

 

in the porch hangs the memorial for the 1914-18 war. There is also a letter, unlike anything I’ve ever come across: it’s a signed plea from the Vicar and the Parish Council at the end of WW1, addressed to their counterparts in 2014. For some reason they were not allowed to hang the war memorial plaque inside the church and they hit on this idea of asking the future generation to put this right. (Unfortunately the plaque and the walls are too fragile to comply with their request.)

A week or two later we had a couple of days in Hereford and between visiting relatives and having coffee, lunch and tea in various National Trust and English Heritage castles, etc, we drove the Black & White Villages Trail in pursuit of the setting for Phil Rickman’s series of mysteries featuring the Reverend Merrily Watkins. (Heartily recommended, by the way!) We also visited the tiny, ancient church at Kilpeck, south of Hereford. It’s featured in one of Phil’s books and it was magical – and not in the least sinister as it is in the book! Once a thriving mediaeval village beside a Norman castle, Kilpeck was incredibly peaceful when we saw it on a sunny September day. There wasn’t a sound, even from the neighbouring farm, only the birds twittering and small rustlings in the grass.
The church is renowned for its carved corbels all round the outside, particularly a rather cheerful, but explicit, Sheela Na Gig. I’m not posting her picture on here but just say that she looks a very happy and generous lady!

This is a Wikipaedia photo of the church as mine was a bit pathetic:

Tuesday, 20th November is now the official launch date of my cosy and domestic mystery, The Convalescent Corpse. Set in 1918 it’s ‘A story of life, rationing, and inconvenient corpses.’

Last weekend the local rec played host to a display of vehicles from both WW1 and WW2 with re-enactors on hand to explain what was happening. My particular interest at the moment is WW1 and with a convalescent hospital featured in the new book, I was delighted to snap this nurse: I asked her to look stern, and she tried, bless her, but was far too jolly to keep it up for long.https://amzn.to/2v0gQnX This is the Amazon UK link to buy The House at Ladywell (tell your friends!) and in the meantime, this is the blurb for The Convalescent Corpse:
It’s 1918 and the War has brought loss, grief and hardship to the three Fyttleton sisters. Helped by their grandmother (a failed society belle and expert poacher) and hindered by a difficult mother (an author and armchair suffragette) – plus an unruly chicken-stealing dog and a house full of paying-guests – they now have to deal with the worrying news that their late and unlamented father may not be dead after all. There’s also a death that might be suspicious, and on top of that there’s the body in the ha-ha…

 

A New Book – About Life, Rationing, and Inconvenient Corpses!

This year is proving to be all about books! No surprise there – my Granny used to say, ‘That child always has her nose in a book,’ and so I did, and still do. However, 2018 is different in that six of my books are being republished and – drum roll, please – Crooked Cat Books have just taken on my NINTH BOOK! the very cosy mystery, The Convalescent Corpse. The ebook should come out around the end of the year, followed shortly afterwards by the paperback.

This is the publisher’s announcement, not the actual  cover for The Convalescent Corpse, it’s too soon for that. Set in 1918, in Ramalley, the same fictional version of Romsey as The House at Ladywell, this book charts the efforts of three young sisters to cope with WW1 wartime shortages, difficult parents, lack of money, a houseful of lodgers – and inconvenient corpses practically on their own doorstep!

I’ve always loved Romsey, ever since I spent all my summer holidays visiting my aunt who lived quite near. My cousins and I used to cycle to Romsey and I’d drag them into King John’s House and the Abbey, to make sure they were still there, so it was a particular delight to find myself living only about five miles from the town. It’s still one of my favourite haunts and I drop in to say Hello to the poignant relic of a young Saxon girl buried in the Abbey. How strange that the only acknowledgement of a life should be her hair in a glass case – who was she? Nobody knows, but I loved her at first sight when I was about seven (I was a weird child, I admit) These days I wander round town, conscious of Freya, from The House at Ladywell, talking in one ear, and now Christabel, whose diary forms The Convalescent Corpse, in the other ear. They’re good company though.

As if that isn’t enough excitement, I’ve also signed with Endeavour Media to republish my first-ever novel, Scuba Dancing, as an ebook, probably early in the New Year. The first book I set in ‘Ramalley’ – this was first published in 2005, followed in 2013 when I self-published  it as an ebook, slightly tweaking a few inconsistencies. I’m delighted now, to have a chance to introduce this very quirky novel to a new audience and was very touched recently, to receive a message from a reader, that Scuba Dancing had ‘helped her through a bout of serious illness.’ 

Earlier in the year I posted that Williams & Whiting were to reissue my first five mysteries – previously published by Robert Hale Ltd – and they’re now all available as ebooks and paperbacks: all three Charlotte Richmond Victorian mysteries, and the firstt two Harriet Quigley contemporary tales. (The third Harriet book was published by Endeavour Press in 2016) Amazon link – https://amzn.to/2uI7UEi

And finally, something non-book related. In January this year The Resident Engineer and I celebrated our Golden Wedding. Fifty years in which we’ve achieved three children, eight grandchildren, lots of travelling, and a great deal of (mostly) cheerful bickering! This is a typical photo, him beaming at the world and me watching to make sure there’s no catastrophe looming. It’s not hard to- guess who is the cautious Capricorn and who the optimistic Leo! (I must have been standing oddly, I’m not really that weird shape!)

I know I make jokes about him, and he winds me up all the time, but my heart still lifts when I hear his key in the door! He drives me mad, but he keeps me sane – which is a pretty good testimonial.

 

Steam Engines, Romans and Four-Poster Beds

About time I did another blog post! My only excuse is that I’m still hibernating as the weather’s been so awful, but a trip to Wales did cheer me up. And it only rained once! As I may have mentioned, the Resident Engineer is keen on steam engines so it was no surprise when he suggested a long weekend in North Wales to take in a special trip on the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway.

It was a fundraising event and we were given a tour of the engine sheds, and dinner in Porthmadog at the station restaurant on the Friday, then it was up and about on Saturday morning to catch the train at 8.30. We went up hill and down dale, mountains, rivers, sea, lakes, trees, sheep –  you name it, we saw them, and in spectacular sunshine too. I love trains so I was happy, especially as I had my trusty Kindle with me and could disappear into a book now and then, and the Resident Engineer gave me helpful information at regular intervals eg about the engines (The Ladies: Linda & Blanche) and the bigger one (a Garrett) that we changed to when we returned to Porthmadog and set off for Caernarfon.

We had a stop-off for lunch, followed by a cream tea served en route.

I don’t usually do plugs for hotels! but the upmarket B&B we stayed in was fabulous. Just outside Porthmadog, with amazing views of the town and the harbour, Plas Tan Yr Allt proved to be the perfect place for a relaxing break. Shelley thought so too when he stayed there in 1812/13.  If you’re looking for friendly and helpful hosts, excellent breakfasts and a massive room complete with an equally large four-poster bed, this is the place for you: http://www.plastanyrallt.co.uk/

After all the railway delights my special treat was a visit to the Roman town of Caerleon: this is a Roman-style garden. 

In other news, my three historical Charlotte Richmond mysteries are now republished and looking wonderful in their smart new covers. If you’ve enjoyed them (or any of my books, actually!) it would be lovely to have a review on Amazon! 

The first two Harriet Quigley contemporary mysteries are also being republished and will be out soon, so it’s all go round here!

As for my most recent book, The House at Ladywell, I’m so pleased that readers are enjoying my story of history, mystery, magic and hares! More great reviews including this lovely recent one: ‘I thoroughly enjoyed The House at Ladywell. It takes a lot of talent to write as Nicola Slade does, intertwining timelines; bringing historical characters and periods to life… not to mention the vast amount of research that must have gone into this novel! All of this while creating a story of beauty, emotion, folklore and mystery. I look forward to reading more from this author and her unique voice.’

It’s Cold Outside…

And while we have no snow, and the sun’s shining,  the Beast from the East cold weather front is making it pretty chilly even down here on the South Coast. In fact I ought to finish painting this polar bear while I’m feeling cold, just to get the right atmosphere. 

 

Bookish news: Cover reveals very soon for my three Charlotte Richmond mysteries which are being republished by Williams & Whiting, beginning the end of this month.

And The House at Ladywell now has 30 great reviews so far on Amazon.co.uk – here’s the Amazon link http://amzn.to/2o4PJ8C

As the weather’s been so horrible lately I think it’s time for some random frivololity: 1)This is one of those pictures that turn up on Facebook so I can’t attribute it, which is a pity because it’s a) amusing and b) true.

2) Some of my literary and historical heroes – I mean, of course, John Thornton, Col Brandon, and Richard Sharpe, not in any way the actors who played them. Oh dear no…  (all promotional images)

Always…

any excuse

 

Needs no introduction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Street Sheep!

One of the stops on our latest Australian odyssey was Canberra and I blogged last month about our visit to the awe-inspiring Australian War Memorial there. On a lighter note, we were intrigued to find a cluster of statues not far from our hotel.

I love a good statue and my favourite is Sound II, the Anthony Gormley statue in the crypt of Winchester Cathedral.

In a wet year you’ll find him up to his knees in water but there are – occasionally – times when he’s standing on dry stones. It’s not always possible to do the tour of the crypt because of the risk of flooding, but you can go and look at the statue from just inside the crypt door. In ‘Murder Fortissimo’, the first of my Harriet Quigley mysteries, I had Harriet’s cousin (and sidekick) Sam Hathaway take a troubled soul to see the statue – something I often do myself because there’s a curious peace about it. (I usually go and chat to Jane Austen while I’m in the Cathedral too!)

Nothing soulful or spiritual about the Canberra statues though, although there were some meaningful pieces – no idea what the pointy beak people are, sorry! Might be angels?

These are wild dogs

 

But these are my favourite! Canberra was built on a sheep station and has been unkindly described as ‘a good sheep paddock spoiled’ and these sheep are a reminder of the city’s past. 

• 
• I loved the laid-back ewe(I think it was a ewe!) lounging in a chair and decided she needed something good to read! In the photo above she’s clearly intent on the story and below you can see she’s blissed out after enjoying The House at Ladywell!
• If the sheep could write she’d be reviewing The House at Ladywell to go with the fabulous four and five star reviews already up on Amazon UK – ‘A really beautiful book…’  Here’s the link to Amazon UK http://amzn.to/2yKDYdk

Rowans and Rocks

I’m delighted with the newly-revealed cover for ‘The House at Ladywell’ – a stunning image of a wreath of rowan leaves and berries, very simple and bold and very relevant to the story. 

‘The House at Ladywell’ will be published on 14^th November by Crooked Cat Books.

This is what it’s about: ‘A hare carved in stone and the scent of flowers in a house full of echoes – can Freya’s inheritance help her leave the past behind?’

As you can see on the cover I’m lucky enough to have a great quote from Sally Zigmond, well-known historical author (‘Hope Against Hope‘), editor and reviewer. She says: ‘An enchanting blend of mystery, history, romance and folklore’ – which sums the book up pretty neatly!

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In other news, my art exhibition ended today so the Engineer and I have dismantled it and brought the remaining paintings home. The framed books are marching back up the wall of the staircase and I’m finally relaxing. I sold three paintings on the night and another two during the month when two separate visitors to the cinema each spotted a painting the liked and contacted me. I met them in the gallery café and we did the deal! They both liked my landscapes, which is interesting and gratifying, because they’re my latest experiment in style. More of that, I think!

This is the most recent painting that sold – ‘Sea Pinks on the Rocks’ (The frame was white, not slightly pink as the photo suggests!)

Victorian Sewage Works & Other Romantic Rendevous

I’ve posted before about the Resident Engineer’s idea of a romantic weekend – Liverpool in January last year, anyone? Our recent trip at the beginning of May, however, has had people rolling their eyes even more wildly. (They were deluded, Liverpool was great and so was the pumping station!)

So, here goes: I was treated to a visit to Crossness, a Victorian sewage pumping station on the Thames. Why? You might well ask… but of course it was in steam that Sunday and the volunteers were literally all hands to the pumps. Being at least as nerdy as the Engineer I already knew about The Great Stink of the summer of 1858 when London was overwhelmed by the combination of heat, millions of people, and effluent with nowhere to go and I knew about Joseph Bazalguette who was brought in to do something about it. What he did was to design a network of sewers and a pumping station that would empty into the Thames. Not great by our standards, but far better than just chucking a bucket out somewhere.I know I laugh at the Engineer’s hobbies though he has to put up with mine – for instance trying to find out how long/if at all it would take a few pigs to devour a complete corpse. (Always a jolly topic at tea time in our house.) However, the Victorian pumping stations that survive are the most wonderful feats of engineering and in some cases are temples to the skill and ambitions of their builders. They’re also not all for sewage!

Best I’ve seen so far is Papplewick in Northamptonshire, which is magnificent. Although it wasn’t in steam when we saw it, I was in awe of the design – an Egyptian temple with lotus flowers all done in wrought iron and painted brightly. (This is their website) Picturehttp://www.papplewickpumpingstation.co.uk/index.htm (Not sewage, this one!)

The recent visit to Crossness revealed a massive site being slowly restored by dedicated volunteers. The only downside is that the modern sewage works is right next door and it’s a bit smelly, but the upside is that it scours your sinuses clean and you walk through a nature reserve to reach the Victorian buildings.  You find yourself on the south bank of the Thames about five miles east of Woolwich, which is where we stayed for a couple of nights. If we had a few million to spare, and wanted to live in London anyway, we’d have a flat in the old Woolwich Arsenal area. That’s where we spotted these fabulous Anthony Gormley statues :

Our local pumping station at Twyford, outside Winchester, is where the Engineer volunteers on a Sunday, and is nowhere near as spectacular as the Temples to Effluvia pictured above and – in fact – has nothing to do with sewage anyway, but the site is interesting as it has a multitude of birds, fish and creatures, as well as a 2′ gauge railway once used to carry coal and chalk. It dates from 1905 but they’re working towards getting the boiler in steam and meanwhile they have regular open days which are quite fun. https://www.twyfordwaterworks.co.uk/

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This not-very-good photo is of the three tiny seascapes I sold on Bank Holiday Monday when our Art Workshop held our annual exhibition. The couple who bought them own a flat on the Isle of Wight and thought the little pictures would go well there.

Christmas won’t be Christmas without…

…the Christmas Day Downton Abbey Special (to paraphrase Jo March in ‘Little Women’.) I’ve been watching the entire story, plus Christmas Specials, over the last couple of months (for the umpteenth time) and I’m now half way through the last series, with the 2015 Christmas Finale saved for sometime on Sunday. I’ve loved every single minute of it, even when Mr Bates, the valet, morphed from a chubby but charming stranger with a secret, into a creepy misery with a line in emotional blackmail and a tendency to loom and menace in dark corners. The rest of the inhabitants of the fabulous Gothic palace were terrific and I miss them; I’m hoping there really will be a film – and I want to be the Dowager Countess when I grow up…   

Failing the miraculous return of my favourite tv programme on Christmas Day here are some more books you’d probably rather not find in your stocking – but might have if you’d been around in the early 1900s.  A couple of years ago I shared some of the more exciting blurbs from my collection of Victorian and Edwardian novels – similar vintage to these (Picture: a tea towel from the Bodleian shop)

The first three are advertised in the back of a book published in 1909 – you can tell they’re not going to end well…

WO₂ by Maurice Drake  ~ A sensational and exciting story of present-day illicit sea-faring. To explain the character of the forbidden trade would be to tell too much; enough that international politics are concerned… An exciting yarn of the sea and its scoundrelism(sic)…

Led into the Wilderness by  ~ William E Bailey John Martin, the hero of this story, is a missionary in a rarely visited island in the East. Here he is ‘tempted of the devil’ and falls. First he yields to a craving for drink and then to allurements of another kind in the person of a beautiful island girl….

Passions of Straw by Evelyn F Heywood  ~ The poignant tragedy of a young woman who, proud, beautiful, ambitious, finds herself wedded to a cynic and a roué. Her husband, having shattered her happiness, finally succeeds in drawing their only child into the whirlpool of his idle, vicious life…

And finally, a cheerful little book advertised in the back of a book published in 1912 – possibly not a forerunner for One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Thankfully things have moved along – a bit – since then. (Below: A diagnostic tool of the era)

The White Thread by Robert Halifax  ~ A book which is practically certain to arrest a serious consideration, both lay and medical. Tilly Westaway herself – the lovable, human little heroine with her secret maternal longings and her desire to ‘put everything right for everybody’ – makes a curiously moving appeal all the way. But it is the vast shadow in the background – the menace of the ever-absorbing, ever-expanding lunatic asylum ward – which will remain in one’s mind long after the book is laid down…(I bet they’re right about that last sentence, it sounds a morbid little tome…)

On the other hand, here’s a book that would cheer anyone up, containing as it does a stalker, a vandalised Porsche, lots of dead insects, a blood-filled fish pond, and a host of other seasonal delights…

Have a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year (hopefully, in my case, without further adventures involving patios, broken bones and broken heads…)