Today on the Ashdown House blog I am chatting about the connections between Ashdown, the Craven family and Jane Austen. There’s also a link to King James II and a mysterious legend of secret passageways lost for centuries! When it comes to inspiration for writers you can’t beat Ashdown’s history! Please drop into the blog if [...]
It’s a while since I blogged about Ashdown House, the National Trust property where I work as a guide and historian. Today I would love to share what has been going on at Ashdown and what we have planned for the season ahead. As many of you know, I feel so lucky to be able [...]
I would like to wish all my readers every happiness this festive season and to say thank you to everyone for making 2012 a very special year for me in my writing. Thank you!
Firstly, congratulations to HJ on winning the blog contest and thank you to everyone who entered! Today I’m talking about a trip to London I made this week to see the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery entitled The Lost Prince: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart.There are a number of historical characters who [...]
First of all, big congratulations to Jeanne on winning the November website contest! Jeanne is one of my most long time and loyal readers and I was thrilled when her name came out of the hat! Jeanne wins a copy of A Lady of Expectations and also a copy of How To Tame a Willful [...]
Over on the Ashdown House blog today we are talking about one of the gorgeous houses featured in fabulous TV series Downton Abbey. Hall Barn in Beaconsfield is another stunning 17th century house very much in a similar style to Ashdown. Please drop into the Ashdown House blog here and tell us what you think! [...]
It was a huge pleasure to show members of my local Bath/Wiltshire Romantic Novelists’ Association Chapter around Ashdown House on Saturday. Twelve members of the group travelled from Bristol and beyond for a special guided tour with tea and cakes afterwards. Fortunately we had a beautiful sunny day for the visit which meant that the [...]
Yesterday I had a lovely day at Grey’s Court celebrating my birthday. Grey’s is a gorgeous little manor house with the best tea rooms I have ever come across. The cake was awesome. Some historic houses, like my lovely Ashdown, are predominantly from one historical period but Grey’s Court is the most wonderful mixture of [...]
Congratulations to Gigi, whose name was picked from the hat to win the blog contest! Thank you all for sharing your favourite flowers on the blog and conjuring up such a vision of summer! Congratulations also to Tora who won the most recent website contest. This month I am offering a big box of Godiva chocolates [...]
I can’t believe it’s almost the end of June. It’s been a really busy month here. Time just seems to rush past so quickly! Some great things have happened though, most particularly the Diamond Jubilee celebrations at the beginning of the month and our special tour of the Guide Dog Puppy Centre last week. I also had a [...]