It will come as no surprise to regular visitors to this blog, but for those who don’t know – I am a knitter. I enjoy it so much, I made the heroine of my latest novel a knitter so she could share my hobby. I find knitting relaxing. It helps with the RSI after all…
I like holes in the ground. The bigger the better! Whether it’s a cave or a mine, I like going underground, even more so when there’s a sense of history attached. My most recent underground adventure was at the National Mining Museum in Wales – otherwise known as Big Pit – where I was guilty…
I recently travelled back in time about 200 years – into the heart of the industrial revolution. I explored the coal pits and the iron works and the factories that were part of that amazing period of history. I found it fascinating, inspiring and in many ways very moving. It was a story of great…
Accolades are pouring in for the movie The Imitation Game – featuring an amazing performance by Benedict Cumberbatch as the Enigma code-breaker Alan Turing. The movie has served to focus attention on Turing and his work at the secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park. It’s also served to highlight the injustice…
It’s not the most imaginative name really – Battle. The town built on the site of the Battle of Hastings – which of course didn’t happen at Hastings at all – it happened at Battle. And there’s an abbey there too – called Battle Abbey. Or rather, the remains of an abbey. And a school…
I love museums – they’re fascinating places full of really really old and interesting things. They house ancient statues and primitive tools – the riches of long dead Kings – that sort of stuff. Imagine then, the double take I did when I saw something all too familiar in a museum… something I had…
It’s really strange to suddenly find yourself in the midst of one of your old school text books. Even in Australia we were taught about Sutton Hoo – the burial mounds in Suffolk that contained an Anglo-Saxon ship and a vast treasure. I now know we were taught just a tiny part of a…
I love a ghost story. And a legend. And music. So it was inevitable that while in the American south on holidays, I should go in search of the ghost of Robert Johnson. We found his grave – all three of them .. and the crossroads where he sold his soul to the devil.…