ANITA DAVISON - THE DISORGANISED AUTHOR

Ghost Ship of Prince Edward Island

2018-03-05T15:53:00.000+00:00

Whilst doing research of Prince Edward Island where my latest wip, Envy The Wind, is set, I came across a ghost story about a ship which has appeared since 1768 in the Northumberland Strait the stretch of water which separates Prince Edward Island from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

The ship doesn’t have a name, but is described as having ‘crisp white sails and a black shiny hull’ that are completely engulfed in flames. She is not always sighted in the same place or a specific time, although more often between September and November whe she is believed to be the forewarning of a north easterly storm.

Attempts have been made to rescue the crew, one of which happened in Charlottetown Harbour around 1900, when a group of sailors reported they could see members of the crew running back and forth to avoid the flames. A rowboat raced toward the ship but it disappeared before they reached it. A thorough search was carried out by divers, but no shipwreck was found.

Sometimes large numbers of witnesses claim to see the ship simultaneously, all agreeing it was moving fast, even on nights when there was no wind. One sighting was described as follows: [paraphrased]

As it came nearer it seemed to lose speed and stopped opposite our house. We got up on the banks to watch but there was no sign of anyone on board and no dory on tow. About ten minutes after she stopped, smoke began to rise slowly over the deck. There were men who seemed to come up from below and run around the deck in every direction as flames spread across the deck. Men climbed the masts, but when they were halfway up, all the sails caught at the same time. The men were no longer visible as the ship was engulfed in flames. We watched it until the flames died and everything crumbled to the deck. The hull gradually sank lower in the water until it disappeared.

Ferries crossing the Strait between Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island before the Confederation Bridge was built often encountered the phantom ship. A ferryboat captain reported sailing straight through the flames finding nothing, while another claimed to have seen “a burning vessel appeared aglow with fire and was moving fast.”

In 1885, a group of rescuers attempted to help the burning ship were lost themselves, never to be heard from again – although this could be apocryphal as I couldn’t find any specific evidence of this event.

In 1905, a New Brunswick scientist William Francis Ganong suggested the nature of the light described in sightings could be a natural electrical phenomena on the surface of the sea which rises in columns, and resembled the flaming rigging of a ship. Another explanation is that the ship is a bank of fog reflecting moonlight, or the setting of the moon on the horizon. Not as romantic as a burning ghost ship, but at least it does not have its origins in an ancient disaster.

Stories of sightings don’t vary much, and its observed from both sides of the strait, the south coast of Prince Edward Island, the North coast of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, as well as Caribou Island and Pictou Island.

The Isabella, a schooner which set sail with a cargo of lumber in December 1868 was lost at sea off Labrador. She was last seen by a lighthouse keeper on Amet Island during a violent storm off Nova Scotia, but no trace of her was ever found. Was this the mysterious ghost ship?

Other theories are she is an immigrant ship of Highland Scots, lost at sea while searching for new land, or a pirate ship sunk near Merigomish by a British warship during the Napoleonic War. One explanation is she was a pirate ship that pillaged a ship from England, then the crew got into a drunken brawl with another pirate ship over the spoils during which both ships caught fire and all hands were lost.

"There's a burst of flame and a flash of light
And there on the tide is a frightening sight
As a tall ship all aflame lights up the sky
Tales of the phantom ship, from truck to keel in flames
She sails the wide Northumberland Strait
No one knows her name.”

From "Tales of the Phantom Ship" a song by Lennie Gallant

In June 2014, Canada Post issued a stamp depicting the Northumberland Strait ghost ship, issued on Friday 13th as part of a series of Canadian ghost story stamps.

Envy The Wind - A story of Prince Edward Island will be released in Summer 2018

Personally, I don't believe in ghosts, or the paranormal, and maybe the 'light phenomenon' explanation is feasible. However, islands and coastal areas like Cornwall often have romantic tales connected with the sea passed down through the years which add to their character.

After all, stranger things happen at sea.

Coming Summer 2018

An Author's Regret

2017-12-07T07:00:00.000+00:00

I am currently writing a novel for the Canadian Brides Series of books produced by BWL Publishing to celebrate the 150 years of Canada's History. Part of the process is a monthly blog post on specified subjects. This month the subject was, 'What Would You Change.'

And that got me thinking - and the most outstanding thing is that I would have listened to those voices of my childhood that said I could, and should write. Not a crowd of enthusiastic teachers and mentors, but the one or two spontaneous remarks which even then I could sense were genuine.

I should have asked those early voices why they thought so, or even how I could go about becoming a writer – but I was brought up in an atmosphere of blending in, never drawing attention to yourself and where the words ‘not for the likes of us.’ still ring down the years.

It might sound like a cop out to say, ‘no one showed me how to do it’ but that’s how it was to feel something is achievable for others but not for me. I didn’t have much of a sense of self-worth, so I didn’t reach for the stars, only the nearest thing. The thought of ‘what if’ was always there, but with no idea of how to turn that spark of ambition that never quite grew into a flame a reality.

This was, of course, in the pre-internet days when libraries were sanctums of yellow-paged hardbacks and indexed file cards guarded by frizzy haired matrons who believed silence must be maintained at all costs, especially against questions from schoolgirls – so where to start? No, I didn't live in medieval times but in comparison to today it might have seemed like it.

So I floundered, toyed, and touched the surface ever so lightly, but never jumped in.

I began writing late and purely to please myself. During a process of criticism, editing and reading, I discovered that writing is a craft which begins with some talent, but can be acquired and needs to be honed by practice reading, editing and more practice.

The more I write, the more I realise there is so much more I don’t know about writing – or even what good writing actually is. It's also not how technically perfect you can turn out a piece of prose; it’s about how you communicate feelings and experiences in a unique voice with which readers can connect.

Photographs of youthful, bright eyed young women bringing out chart-topping novels are everywhere, and although thrilled for them – and I truly am - I cannot help a stir of envy of the many years they have ahead of them to write, inspire and be inspired as their careers and reputation grows.

Or maybe it was meant to take this long to find out these things, that I’m simply a [very] late developer? In which case – regret is pointless.

Titles with BWL Publishing

Envy the Wind - A story about Prince Edward Island in 1905

Scheduled for release Summer 2018

Grace McKinnon’s widowhood promises little but a life of drudgery under her father-in-law’s oppressive rule. When quiet rebellion turns to opportunity, she books passage on an Atlantic steamer only to face near disaster in Halifax Harbour.....

The Woulfes of Loxsbeare Series

Anita's Contacts

BLOG: http://thedisorganisedauthor.blogspot.co.uk

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/anita.davison TWITTER: @AnitaSDavison

REVIEW-The Girl I Used to Know by Faith Hogan

2017-11-23T07:30:00.000+00:00

FAITH HOGAN'S LATEST NOVEL

RELEASED ON DECEMBER 1ST

PUBLISHER’S BLURB

A beautiful, emotive and spell-binding story of two women who find friendship and second chances when they least expect it. Perfect for the fans of Patricia Scanlan.
Amanda King and Tess Cuffe are strangers who share the same Georgian house, but their lives couldn't be more different.
Amanda seems to have it all, absolute perfection. She projects all the accoutrements of a lady who lunches. Sadly, the reality is a soulless home, an unfaithful husband and a very lonely heart.
By comparison, in the basement flat, unwanted tenant Tess has spent a lifetime hiding and shutting her heart to love.
It takes a bossy doctor, a handsome gardener, a pushy teenager and an abandoned cat to show these two women that sometimes letting go is the first step to moving forward and new friendships can come from the most unlikely situations.

REVIEW

Set in present day Dublin, this story is about Amanda, a middle-aged woman who thought she had everything she ever wanted, apart from Tess Cuff, the elderly sitting tenant in her basement who is the bane of her – well not hers, but her husband’s life. Both women realise they have lost their identity somewhere along the line. But how do they change things? Is it too late and is there still a way to live the lives they always dreamed of? Or maybe just take a different path?

Amanda is dominated by her selfish, ambitious husband and two spoiled, entitled kids, who at the beginning of the story appear to have no respect for her. Tess is alone, but her life was very different at one time, making her wonder how and when it all went wrong.

Then Tess finds she isn’t as indestructible as she thought, and Amanda discovers her husband is not the perfect spouse she imagined – rebellion is afoot!

The novel is told in the two viewpoints of Tess and Amanda, with flashbacks to the defining points in their two lives and the catalysts that bring them together as individuals with similar regrets.

An inspiring read with some lovely emotions and deep insight into the truth that life is never what we expect it to be, even with all the right ingredients. I loved the growing friendship between these two quite different women which had a very satisfying ending.

Faith's Website

The Girl I used to Know is scheduled for release by Aria Fiction on 1st December 2017

REVIEW-Servant of the Crown Mysteries by Denise Domning

2017-11-16T12:50:00.000+00:00

SEASON OF THE RAVEN

It’s 1194 and Sir Faucon de Ramis, the shire’s newly appointed Keeper of the Pleas, must do his duty and make an official declaration of the cause of a miller’s death. Saddled with a clerk who names Faucon his ‘penance', the shire’s first Crowner must thread the tangled relationships between the sheriff, the village of Priors Holston and the priory that once ruled it. As a simple task takes a turn to the political, what seems obvious isn’t and what appears safe turns out to be more dangerous than he could imagine.

SEASON OF THE FOX

A wealthy merchant has been murdered in his own home, and the suspect has fled to sanctuary in a local church. Enter Sir Faucon de Ramis, the king’s new Servant of the Crown in the shire, to solve the murder, assisted by his prickly secretary, Brother Edmund.
As Faucon begins his hunt, the shire’s new Crowner finds himself in the upside-down world of a woman’s trade. Not only does the merchant’s wife own the business—unheard of!—the suspect is the daughter’s betrothed, or so the town believes. But what about the bloody shoe prints and missing tally sticks, and what does the sheriff have to gain?

LOST INNOCENTS

A leper’s daughter is found in the well of a dying hamlet and the only suspect has fled into Feckenham Forest. But the sun is setting and Warwickshire’s sheriff is hunting his new Crowner. That sends Sir Faucon de Ramis and Brother Edmund, his prickly clerk, racing for a nearby abbey only to meet the man he least wishes to see at the abbey gates. Before long, Faucon finds himself riding into the dark at Sir Alain's side as they hunt for yet another lost innocent.

REVIEW

As a writer of historical mysteries I recently discovered these three novels and was instantly engaged with the unique author voice and style of writing. The research is impeccable, well apart from King Richard being referred to as His Majesty, which was not used until much later, but that’s a minor criticism as the author weaves historical details, descriptions and points of medieval law into the narrative beautifully.

The Norman's rule the unruly English and King Richard needs all the money he can wrest from his people in order to pay for his crusades. King’s Crowners are enlisted as an alternative to the sometimes corrupt sheriffs to investigate murder and unnatural death, but primarily to charge appropriate fines to wrongdoers.

Faucon de Ramis, a young ex-soldier looking for a purpose is nominated by his wealthy uncle into the post or Coronari – Keeper of The Pleas – a post similar to that of a coroner who examines the bodies and determines cause of death. However our hero is quickly drawn in to the villagers lives and sets out to find the killers too – with some help from a supercilious monk called Edmund whose adherence to protocol is frustrating but essential.

Pery might be reluctant but the post gives him a home and an income, so he throws himself into it with commitment and a keen intelligence. He has the ability to relate to anyone no matter their rank, and England in the Twelfth Century was all about rank and the church.

The first killing is of a miller, then a weaver and finally the daughter of a leper. Each one is handled sensitively and with fascinating historical detail.

I was fascinated by the law that said the wheel that ended a man’s life must be instilled with sin [deodand] as is therefore forfeited to God and had to be given to the church: an act which would ruin the miller’s successor as without a wheel he could not grind the grain. I looked up this English common law of the 11th century which was not abolished until 1846.

I especially enjoyed the story of the murdered linsman, whose comfortable lifestyle was provided by craftsmen and women who made garments and embroidered ribbons and trimmings for the wealthy in a sort of early production line.

The original killing which opens the first book and carried through all three stories is left open at the end as a tantalising carrot for the next book. I hope I can read that one soon as I loved these stories and will look forward to reading more from this author.

Denise's Amazon Author Page
Denise's Website

BLOG TOUR - The Forgotten Children

2017-10-31T07:00:00.000+00:00

Blog Tour for The Forgotten Children from Aria Fiction

Release Day Wednesday 1st November 2017

The Book and Beauty Blog

Love Books Group

That Thing She Reads

Secret World of a Book Blog

Donna's Book Blog

Bookish Jottings

Sky Filled with Sparkling Stars

Chick Lit Club Connect

Dash Fan Book Reviews

Novel Gossip

Book Lover in Florida

Buy Links

UK: http://amzn.to/2xQRHjX

US: http://amzn.to/2y3N8lc

Review of The Murderess by Jennifer Wells

2017-10-16T14:45:00.000+01:00

PUBLISHER’S BLURB

The Murderess is a heart-stopping story of family, love, passion and betrayal set against the backdrop of war-ravaged Britain. Perfect for fans of Lesley Pearse and Dilly Court.

1931: Fifteen year old Kate witnesses her mother Millicent push a stranger from a station platform into the path of an oncoming train. There was no warning, seemingly no reason, and absolutely no remorse.

1940: Exactly nine years later, Kate returns to the station and notices a tramp laying flowers on the exact spot that the murder was committed; the identity of the victim, still remains unknown.

With a country torn apart by war and her family estate and name in tatters, Kate has nothing to lose as she attempts to uncover family secrets that date back to the Great War and solve a mystery that blights her family name.

REVIEW

I enjoyed Ms Wells ‘The Liar’ and this book was just as well written, also intriguing in that at first, I couldn’t tell where the story was going.. The author left me guessing as to which character I was supposed to feel empathy with. The betrayed Millicent whose only wish was to bear her husband’s child, Kate, who had been lied to for so long that when the secrets started to unravel, as they always do, was left to make sense of it all.

Or was Rosalie the one who deserved pity, the one who betrayed and was eventually betrayed? Halfway through the story I had a sense of inevitability which even though it played out, did not detract from the impact of the story.

Ms Wells certainly has a knack for portraying women whose obsession for motherhood changes their personalities and in some cases is used as justification for the things they do.

Buy Link

Flora No 4 Coming Soon

2017-10-10T13:19:00.002+01:00

No 4 in the Flora Maguire Mysteries
Scheduled for release on 1st November

from Aria Fiction

The Flora Maguire Mystery Series

Flora Maguire was raised by , Riordan Maguire, the head butler on the country estate of Earl Trent on the edge of the Cotswold countryside where she shared an attic apartment with her father at night and the schoolroom with the daughters of the house during the day.

Questions have always surrounded her mother’s death, whom Flora lost at the age of six. Vague memories return in disturbing dreams which have always haunted her, but Lily Maguire’s fate remains a mystery.

At eighteen, Flora became governess to the youngest child, Edward, where her status as neither family nor servant in the household taught her to be both discreet and observant in a Victorian atmosphere of secrets and half-truths.

Flora’s story begins in New York after a family wedding when she is charged with escorting Edward home to England on a transatlantic steamship. When a body is discovered on deck, Flora has questions for both the ship’s doctor and crew appear unwilling, or unable to answer.

Enlisting the help of a charming young man on board called Bunny Harrington, Flora’s instincts are proved correct when a killer is revealed.

Book 2 contains the revelation of family secrets during a personal tragedy which change Flora’s perception of herself forever, while in Book 3, her marriage to Bunny gives her more freedom to seek out murderers.

In the 4th Book in the series, Flora and Bunny’s pursuit of wrongdoers take them into the darker sides of life, where a chance encounter during a case of child trafficking sends Flora on a personal quest to discover what really happened to her mother.

US Version

Kindle - Kobo - Google Play - I Books

UK: http://amzn.to/2xQRHjX

US: http://amzn.to/2y3N8lc

Cover Reveal

2017-06-19T09:26:00.000+01:00

Aria Fiction have designed a beautiful new cover for the fourth book in the

Flora Maguire Mysteries.

This new adventure takes Flora into the south of the city of London, where she and Bunny are invited to a charity hospital for children as prospective patrons. During their visit, a nurse is found dead in the grounds, raising questions as to whether she was killed accidentally in a botched robbery, or was she murdered? It s not long before Flora discovers that several children have mysteriously disappeared after leaving the hospital, though no one appears overly concerned as they have not been reported missing.

Flora and Bunny set out to discover the whereabouts of the children, but time is of the essence. If the trail goes cold, Flora feels they might never be seen again.

Scheduled for release in November 2017 from Aria Fiction

The Flora Maguire Mysteries Locations

2017-05-13T12:33:00.000+01:00

I am often asked if I use actual locations for my Flora Maguire Mysteries, and the answer is - definitely. As an historical fiction writer I always try to place my stories in places which exist and try to create the nostalgia for a past time.

FLORA'S SECRET

Stateroom on the SS Minneapolis

The first story was set on an actual steamship called the SS Minneapolis which left New York on a sort of test run with under a hundred passengers before the actual maiden voyage which left from London a few weeks later. The ship was a min-Titanic, but according to the promotional material of the times was just as luxurious, with a glass roofed dining room, electric lighting, and one of the first ships to carry wireless telegraphy.

BETRAYAL AT CLEEVE ABBEY

Pittville Gates, Then and Now

Although the family Flora worked for lived in a real place, I invented the actual house they lived in. However the setting of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in the summer of 1902 when the town was celebrating the coronation of King Edward VII, was as authentic as I could make it. Flora travels by tram past the gates to the park which then charged a penny entry. She also seeks advice from a building that is now a wine bar, but was once a pharmacy.

A KNIGHTSBRIDGE SCANDAL

The Grenadier Public House, Old Barrack Yard, Knightsbridge

In No 3, Flora investigates a murder where the body of a young woman is discovered outside a public house. I went exploring and found the perfect location at the end of an alley called Old Barrack Yard off Knightsbridge. The Grenadier, built in 1720 was known as the Duke of Wellington's Officers Mess and was frequented by King George IV. It also houses a famous ghost called 'Cedric' which I couldn't resist including ion the story. [Click on the picture for their website]

THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN
[Scheduled for Release November 2017]

The locations below are included in the upcoming mystery story scheduled for release in November - but I leave these as a taster of what is to come.

The Evelina Children's Hospital

The Tower Subway

REVIEW-The Second Chance Teashop by Fay Keenan

2017-04-27T20:38:00.000+01:00

Fellow Aria author, Fay Keenan has brought out her debut novel, perfect to pack in your suitcase for your summer holiday

Publisher's Blurb

Following the tragic death of her beloved husband, Anna Hemingway decides it's time for a fresh start. So Anna and her three-year-old daughter Ellie move to a picture-perfect cottage in the beautiful village of Little Somerby, and when she takes over the running of the village tea shop, Ellie and Anna start to find happiness again.

But things get complicated when Matthew Carter, the owner of the local cider farm, enters their lives. Throughout a whirlwind year of village fetes and ancient wassails, love, laughter, apple pie and new memories, life slowly blossoms again. But when tragedy strikes and history seems to be repeating itself, Anna must find the strength to hold onto the new life she has built.

This beautiful, life-affirming debut novel marks the beginning of the Little Somerby series, and promises to make you smile, cry, reach for a cream tea, and long for a life in the perfect English countryside.

Review

An easy to read story where the main character, Anna, is getting over a sad loss but appears to have got her life sorted out and onto a new path to success – she has even met a handsome new man. I thought I knew where the story was going, however as it progressed there was a great deal more to the storyline which made it unputdownable.

This is the perfect light-hearted romance designed for a sunny day on a lounger with a cool drink, or read curled up in front of the fire with a hot chocolate. A surprisingly well crafted debut novel, which tells me there will be more to look forward to from this author. The prose flows beautifully and the portrait of the village of Little Somerby, its characters and the celebration of blessing the apple trees is brilliantly authentic.

Anna and Matthew have a shaky start to their relationship, but instead of the misunderstanding/split scenario, what follows is a charming love story which takes a few bends and bumps but is always interesting and turns which keep you engaged throughout. I was delighted to see a sequel is in the mix and look forward to re-visiting this setting, in the hope of reading more about Anna, Matthew, Meredith and Ellie.

Fay's Website
Twitter @faykeenan

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Sticks, Stones and Bad Reviews

2017-04-19T18:16:00.001+01:00

Negative reviews carry a sting which lingers whether an author likes to admit it or not. A few sharp comments rushed off online can nullify months, even years of work as savaging an author takes little skill and a lot of venom - and to what purpose? To deliberately injure a writer they have never met simply because they can?

We have all read books we have hated - a character we didn't take to, a storyline we thought unbelievable and over simplified, or a plot which didn't work. However most of us choose not to air our views public at the expense of an author.

Trashing a book with scathing personal criticism or hyperbole against an author says more about the reviewer than the reviewed. It's also instinctive for a writer to respond to a bad review with an answering tirade but it’s best to remember that reviews are a single person's opinion and nothing more. Most of us have read an author’s response which have turned into online back and forth rant between attacker and attacked, and neither of them come out of it particularly well.

We all read different things into books. They either touch us or they don't and what is one persons 'OMG best book ever' is another's 'This is rubbish'. And are they all bad? A negative review amongst a page of five star ones has piqued my curiosity on occasion and made me buy the book. Authors cannot control a reader's expectation of a novel, so liking or disliking a book is often a question of personal taste.

I don't claim to be a literary giant writing award winning books that carve a niche in society and touch souls. I write light-hearted stories with a beginning, middle and an end where the good triumph and the bad get their just desserts - mostly. I do know that anyone who has ever written a book is unlikely to deliberately and cruelly trash anyone else's work - we know too well what goes into producing one.

Therefore I take the stance that if readers don't like my books - don't read them. I can live with that.

Here are some interesting links to some famous books which attracted unfavourable reviews. One from The Saturday Review which says of Harper Lee's 'To Kill A Mockingbird'

'Miss Lee's problem has been to tell the story she wants to tell and yet to stay within the consciousness of a child, and she hasn't consistently solved it.'

Even Classics Get Trashed

Shockingly Bad Reviews

BLOG TOUR

2017-03-20T22:14:00.000+00:00

..for A Knightsbridge Scandal all this week

The Writing Garnet

Chick Lit Club Connect

I Heart Reading

Bookish Jottings

Terri Nixon's Blog

Hon Charles Stewart Rolls

2017-03-11T14:08:00.001+00:00

In my fourth Edwardian Cosy Mystery, my heroine Flora, is taken ballooning by her father who introduces her to a fascinating young man who lived a fast and adventurous life which was to be cut short tragically soon.

Charles Stewart Rolls was an archetypal upper class young man whose name most people have heard of but about whom we know very little, and yet his name graces the radiators of some of the most exclusive cars in the world.

Born in 1877, the Hon Charles Stewart Rolls was an impressive 6ft 5ins tall, handsome and from a wealthy family, the third son of John Allan Rolls, 1st Baron Llangattock, an Army officer, Justice of the Peace and High Sheriff of Monmouthshire. Their country home was The Hendre, [Welsh for Winter Dwelling or main house] near Monmouth.

His eldest brother, John Maclean Rolls was destined to be the 2nd Baron Llangattock but died of wounds received at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The second son, Henry Allen Rolls, was a Lieutenant in the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers (Militia) who was wounded in WWI and died in 1916. A daughter, Eleanor Georgiana Rolls married Sir John Edward Shelley, the sixth Baronet Shelley and died in 1961.

Motoring

Fascinated with engines and electronics, he installed a dynamo at The Hendre while in his teens, and wired part of the house before entering Trinity College, Cambridge. At 18, Charles went to Paris, where, with his father's assistance he bought a 3 3/4 hp Peugeot Paris-Bordeaux Phaeton for £225 - the first ever car based in Cambridge and one of the most powerful available at the time. When he took the 140mile trip home to Monmouth in his new motor car, the townspeople waited two days and nights to catch a glimpse of him as he drove over Monnow Bridge - only the third car owned in Wales.

Charles left university in 1898 with a degree in Mechanism and Applied Science, earning the nicknames "Dirty Rolls" and "Petrolls" because of his love of messing with engines. He worked on his father’s steam yacht ‘Santa Maria’, after which he obtained a third engineer's (marine) certificate. He worked at the London and North Western Railway at their main locomotive engineering workshops.

In 1896, he joined and a group of auto enthusiasts, and campaigned against the 4mph speed limit, helping it's increase to 12 mph. A founding member of the Automobile Club of Great Britain in 1897 where he served until his death, Rolls was an enthusiastic racing driver. His first race was in France in 1899, finishing fourth in his class, driving an 8hp Panhard and Levassor.

Despite the inaugural London to Brighton Run in November 1896 there were still few automotive vehicles on the roads of Britain, so in 1900, Lord Northcliffe organised a ‘Reliability Run' over 1,000 miles from London to Edinburgh and back. This was intended to show detractors of the ‘horseless-carriage’ that the internal combustion engine could replace horse power.

Run on bumpy, unmade roads with no signposts and in open cars whatever the weather, no windscreen, the drivers wore 'autocoats', hats and goggles. Charles drove his Panhard Levassor and won the gold medal for best car in any class. Frank Hedges Butler, wine merchant and 1st hon. Treasurer of the RAC, took part, accompanied by his daughter, Vera, who became Charles Roll’s girlfriend. In 1902, the pair were on a drive when they collided with a horse-drawn trap in traffic from the Barnet Fair.

That same year, Charles started one of the first car dealerships in Britain. With £6,600 of financial backing provided by his father, C.S. Rolls and Co imported high-class French Peugeot and Belgian Minerva cars which they sold through their ‘showroom’ premises in Fulham, London.

In June 1902, Charles entered the Paris-Vienna three-day race covering 990km - legendary as being one of the toughest because it included the Arlberg Pass, a 6000ft climb up a wagon road, crossed by drainage ditches; and a dangerous decent which burnt out brakes and caused more than a dozen accidents.

In February 1903 Rolls competed in the fateful Paris to Madrid town-to-town race which claimed the lives of thirty-four drivers and spectators. He held the unofficial land speed record in 1903 piloting his 80hp Mors, a French car which he imported and distributed, to nearly 83 mph along the course in the Duke of Portland’s Clipstone Park.

After a slow start, Rolls’ business was doing well and he opened a showroom in Brook Street, West London and wrote for ‘Car Illustrated’, owned by a friend.

In May 1903, Charles entered the 800 mile race from Paris to Madrid in May which was intended to be a triumph of speed but ended at Bordeaux in chaos and disaster. Despite starting the faster vehicles first, the disparity of speeds meant there was over-taking on the road. Due to a lack of rain, the first cars raised huge clouds of dust which hampered the vision of following drivers as well as the crowd, some of whom strayed onto the roads trying to get a better view of the oncoming cars and several were run down.

On 4 May 1904, Charles met Frederick Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel in Manchester to discuss selling Royce motor cars. Royce was fifteen years older and had worked hard all his life, unlike the wealthy Charles, though despite this they became friends. Royce wanted to build the best cars, Charles wanted to sell the best, and both wanted them to be British.

Legend has it that when Royce showed Charles his motor car, he climbed aboard and asked Royce to go ahead and start her up, Royce replied, “My dear fellow, she’s already running!” Charles borrowed one of Royce’s cars for his return journey to London; where he announced he had:-“...found the greatest motor engineer in the world”.

Thus Rolls-Royce was born; the first cars offered to the public in December 1904, with Charles as Technical Director. In 1906 Rolls won the Tourist Trophy and also broke the Monte Carlo-to-London record. When the staff at the Rolls-Royce plant in Derby heard the news, they hoisted Henry Royce aloft in triumph. That same year, Rolls exhibited Rolls-Royce cars at the New York Motor Show and was introduced to the Wright Brothers.

Ballooning

Charles’ first ascent aboard a balloon, was on the ‘Wulfruna’ in 1896 on a sixteen mile flight from Crystal Palace to Epping Forest.

Charles Rolls and Vera Hedges Butler

In 1901, Vera Hedges Butler had arranged a trip for her father, Frank,but before they were due to set out, Vera’s Renault 4.5 caught fire and the trip was cancelled. Instead, Charles suggested a trip with their friend Stanley Spencer in Spencer’s balloon, ‘City of New York’. They took off from Crystal Palace and whilst sipping champagne over Sidcup, Kent, discussed starting an Aero Club along the lines of the Royal Automobile Club, but allowing women as equal members. They leased a clubhouse at 119 Piccadilly, which it retained until 1961 and in 1910 became the Royal Aero Club.

Every weekend, weather permitting, he and his friends, and his girlfriend, Vera, could be seen at The Hurlingham Club at Ranelagh, or the Crystal Palace to ascend in balloons.

The Club membership quickly grew to nearly three hundred, The Hon. Lady Shelley – Charles Roll’s sister, Eleanor, was a member as well as being a keen motorist. The club owned three balloons where trips were charged at two guineas each. Races, contests, and exhibitions of aeronautic subjects and machines were held in the Club grounds.

Charles’ friend, Leslie Bucknall, invented a sport where balloons were chased by motor cars; originally intended to show the military that dispatches could be moved more quickly by balloon. Charles made over 170 balloon ascents and in 1903 won the Gordon Bennett Gold Medal for the longest single flight time and held the record for the Paris to Berlin flight.

His interest turned from balloons to powered flight, and in April 1910, he purchased the French Wright with a Wright Bariquand engine - not Rolls-Royce powered because Royce was yet to design a Rolls-Royce aero engine.

Together with the Wright brothers in America and the Short brothers, balloon makers to the Club, Charles acquired a Wright license for the first aircraft production line in the world at Leysdown and later at nearby Eastchurch.

From 1910 the Royal Aero Club, issued Aviators Certificates, Charles Rolls was issued with Certificate No 1. The Club trained most military pilots up to 1915, when military schools took over.

On June 2nd, 1910, Rolls flew his Wright biplane across the English Channel to France, was spotted over French territory without permission, and returned to England without landing. The trip was the third Channel crossing by air, Bleriot having made the first, and Jacques de Lesseps the second. Charles became the first man to fly non-stop across the English Channel both ways.

On the 12 July 1910, around twenty of the world’s most famous aviators travelled to Hengistbury Head, at Christchurch, Dorset which attracted approximately 2,000 visitors.

With a gusting wing speed of 20 to 25 mph, Charles came in to land. He shut off his engine, intending to glide in a broad circle down onto the target spot. He saw he would undershoot, so pulled back the controls to lift the nose and began a turn, when a stiff wind hit his plane beam-on. The two rear rudders broke loose from the tail plane which bent upwards, crumpled and snapped off. The tail boom broke away and the plane overturned and nose-dived into the ground.

Although Rolls fell only 20 feet, he fractured his skull, and died in the arms of a distraught friend, US colonel and aviator Sam Cody.

He was 32 years old

Charles was Britain`s first aircraft fatality in a powered aircraft, and the eleventh internationally. Lord Montague of Beaulieu interrupted his speech in the House of Lords to announce his death. Charles was buried at St. Cadoc's Church on 16 July 1910. He had a philosophical outlook towards the danger he courted, saying:

“All good engineering calls for casualties—so why not?”

As a symbol of mourning, the intertwined “RR” logo on the Rolls-Royce radiator plate was changed from red to black and his name retained as a mark of respect.

Sources:

http://www.monmouth.org.uk

http://www.cartage.org.lb

Rolls-Royce History

http://www.bentleyboys.com

Review-Murder at Merisham Lodge by Celina Grace

2017-03-06T17:26:00.000+00:00

Not only do I write cosy mysteries, I love curling up with one because, being empathetic, I know there won't be any nasty gory details to give me nightmares. Here is another I recently came across and to make it even more attractive, it's an historical one.

Book Blurb

A mansion, a title and marriage to a wealthy Lord – Lady Eveline Cartwright has it all. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to prevent her being bludgeoned to death one night in the study of Merisham Lodge, the family’s country estate in Derbyshire.

Suspicion quickly falls on her ne’er-do-well son, Peter, but not everyone in the household is convinced of his guilt. Head kitchen maid Joan Hart and lady’s maid, Verity Hunter, know that when it comes to a crime, all is not always as it seems.

With suspicions and motives thick on the ground, Joan and Verity must use all the wit and courage they possess to expose a deadly murderer who will stop at nothing to achieve their aim…

Murder at Merisham Lodge is the first in a new series of historical mysteries, Miss Hart and Miss Hunter Investigate, set in the 1930s. The author, Celina Grace, is the creator of the bestselling The Kate Redman Mysteries and The Asharton Manor Mysteries, as well as several standalone thrillers.

Review

A delightful cosy mystery written in first person from the point of view of Joan Hart, which gave a charming and informative insight into the life of a kitchen maid in a large house in 1930. When the lady of the house is murdered and her son is arrested, Joan and her best friend Verity think something is wrong. They start to ask questions and watch the activities of those in the house, hampered by the fact their time isn’t their own and have to work around the demands of their employers and their superiors in the servants hall.

Despite these restrictions, and Joan’s natural insecurity where dealing with Inspector Marks, the policeman in charge of the case, the two women set about proving who really did bash lady Eveline’s head in. Their motive being natural curiosity and a sense of justice rather than self-interest, other than keeping their jobs if the family are all killed or jailed.

How the upstairs family regard the downstairs staff is well illustrated, as well as just how demanding working as a servant must have been after WWI at a time when so many country houses had to reduce their staff numbers for the sake of economy; a trend that was to worsen with the coming of WWII. There is a scene where Joan works all day to produce a complicated meal which the family don’t even eat - I could feel her frustration at her wasted labour.

I really liked Joan, who had more nous than she gave herself credit for, and Verity was the delightful, more daring one of the two who wasn’t verse to helping herself to the brandy when the need arose.
I look forward to reading more of Joan and Verity’s adventures.

Celina's Website

A Knghtsbridge Scandal

2017-03-01T07:00:00.000+00:00

RELEASED TODAY

No 3 in THE FLORA MAGUIRE MYSTERY SERIES
AN EDWARDIAN COSY MYSTERY
RELEASED ON MARCH 1st 2017
FROM ARIA BOOKS

1903 London is bustling and glamorous. With troubling secrets simmering and worrying signs of war Flora Maguire must solve a deadly mystery which leads right to the heart of the corridors of power.

Flora Maguire has escaped the country to enjoy some time in fashionable Knightsbridge, London. Extravagant shops, exuberant theatres and decadent restaurants mean 1903's London is a thrilling adventure, but there are dark secrets threatening from the continent.

When the body of a London socialite, and leading light of the burgeoning women’s movement, is found outside The Grenadier public house, Flora can’t resist investigating.

Mysterious letters are discovered in the victim’s belongings, strange links to the foreign office and why do the clues keep coming back to the assassination of a Baltic king?

As Flora closes in on the killer, it soon becomes clear she is no longer safe in London, but will her husband Bunny be able to get to her before it’s too late?

Available for Pre Order on Kindle

Flora Maguire-Tea Shops and Suffrage

2017-02-20T14:26:00.002+00:00

The third book of my Edwardian Cosy Mystery Series brings my heroine, Flora Maguire into contact with the Women’s Suffrage Movement. I thought I already knew something about the ‘Votes For Women’ cause, but I learned a great deal more.

By the late 19th Century, it was still not acceptable for a lady to dine alone in public, a taboo which most men were happy to perpetuate. The fact that public conveniences were unheard of also contrived to keep ladies at home. The first ‘convenience’ run by the Ladies Lavatory Company opened near Oxford Circus in 1884.

When William Whitely opened his Whitely's department store in Bayswater in 1870, he applied for a licence to open a restaurant inside the store – and was refused on the grounds of its ‘potential for immoral assignations’.

Restaurants like the Holborn, the Criterion, and the Gaiety welcomed ladies, provided they were accompanied by a male escort, but only in designated dining areas. Simpsons of Piccadilly wouldn’t allow women into its ground floor dining room until 1984.

In the late 1800’s, the innovation of tea shops, manned by waitresses not waiters was at last considered suitable for ladies to meet, and eat in public. To facilitate their customers, tea rooms started to appear in the larger hotels and department stores, where ladies could rest, take tea, and write letters.

By 1879, London contained 100 tea shops, some of which provided light luncheons, including vegetarian meals. At a time when nursing wasn’t considered a suitable occupation for a woman, working in a tea room was highly respectable, somewhere for middle-class women fallen on hard times to work in order to retain their independence.

Lyons opened in Piccadilly in 1894, and the first of their famous Corner Houses in 1909. The smarter venues like Slaters, Fullers, and The Criterion Restaurant Room at Piccadilly Circus grew increasingly popular.

Members of the Women’s Suffrage Movement began using these establishments for afternoon tea and lunch; a trend the proprietors latched onto quickly. Alan’s Tea Rooms in Oxford Street welcomed Suffragists, as did the Cadena Cafes chain of coffee shops, The Tea Cup Inn, Kingsway, and the Gardenia, a vegetarian Restaurant in Catherine Street, Covent Garden some of whom advertised in the suffragist newspaper ‘Votes For Women’.

Advertisement in 'Votes For Women' June 1909

Alan’s Tea Rooms, located on the first-floor of 263 Oxford Street, was owned by Miss Marguerite Liddle, the sister of Helen Gordon Liddle until 1916. An active member of the Women’s Social and Political Union, she was force fed in Strangeways prison in 1909. In October of that same year, Helen and Emily Wilding Davison broke a post office window in protest at women being excluded from a Parliamentary meeting. Helen was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment with hard labour. The newspaper, ‘Votes for Women’ founded by Emmeline Pankhurst, reported Helen’s hunger strike, while the back page contained an advertisement for Alan’s ‘dainty luncheons’.

The Gardenia, opened in 1908 by Thomas Smith close to the Women’s Freedom League headquarters located in Robert Street, south of the Strand, while the WSPU headquarters were to the east of Aldwych in Clement’s Inn. Vegetarian restaurants were particularly popular among suffragettes, as many were aligned to the anti-vivisectionist campaign.

The Teacup Inn opened in 1910 in a ground floor shop and basement in Portugal Street off Kingsway, and by 1912, the WSPU occupied Lincoln’s Inn House in nearby Kingsway. Managed and staffed by women, the owners, Mrs Alice Mary Hansell and Miss Marion Shallard, advertised the cafe in ‘Votes For Women’ as "Dainty luncheons and Afternoon teas at moderate charges. Home cookery. Vegeterian dishes and sandwiches. Entirely staffed and managed by women."

Molinari’s Restaurant at 25 Frith Street, Soho, advertised in The Suffragette magazine, offering to donate 5% of their takings to the cause for customers who wore suffragist badges. In the 1920s the proprietor, Angelo Molinari, was suspected of running a brothel in an upstairs room.

The Criterion Restaurant built in 1874 at Piccadilly Circus, where it still remains, adjoins the theatre. In its Edwardian heyday The Actresses’ Franchise League held its meetings here, convenient to the theatre district.

Eustace Miles Restaurant opened at Chandos Place, Covent Garden in May 1906. A health guru, he ran his establishment with his wife, Hallie as a ‘Food Reform’ restaurant. Ellen Terry’s daughter, Edith Craig, who lived nearby in Bedford Street, sold Votes for Women from a pitch outside the restaurant.

In March 1907, the WSPU chose the Eustace Miles for a breakfast celebrating the release from Holloway of the prisoners arrested as part of the deputation from the first Women’s Parliament. They hired a room for suffragist meetings and by those giving women-related talks. The restaurant flourished during the First World War when meatless cookery became a necessity and the restaurant stayed in business for over 30 years. Especial thanks to online articles of Jane Pettigrew and Elizabeth Crawford for this post and for lots of fascinating information about the suffrage movement and tea rooms, do visit these websites.

Sources:

Women and Her Sphere

Edwardian Promenade

Women History Network

Canton Tea Company

Parliament UK

What is it about January?

2017-01-22T16:00:00.001+00:00

I have always hated January; that post Christmas anti-climax when the next thing you have to look forward to is birdsong and daffodils. The grass is frost-tipped each morning, or it rains, then there's the wind that cuts to the bone, short grey days and long evenings, all of which I see as perfect conditions to line up my research books, computer and endless of supply of coffee and settle down to write.

But it doesn't make sense - I am at my most productive when warm and toasty inside with a manuscript that needs work. The reality is I spend the first hour on catching up with my critique group, answering e-mails and monitoring my Twitter feed, make my third cup of coffee of the morning and open my manuscript - keen to get to work.

What happens? I spend the next few hours tweaking dialogue, deleting scenes and putting them back again. I re-write my scene summaries to fit the new structure that occurred to me sometime at 2.00am the night before, then introduce something random that requires re-jigging of the story line as I decide the original story isn't dramatic enough.

Plot, plan, schedule - but not write.

After deleting the same rejigged sentence a few times, I go back to social media and mess about hoping something will come to me - it doesn't. A day or so of this unproductive twiddling I can take - even a week can be regarded as a natural marinating period for new ideas to mature - but a whole month?

I shall have to write it off as a failure - not the manuscript, the month. Maybe I shouldn't even try and write until February - but then I'll spend January worrying.

I'll try again tomorrow.

A Knightsbridge Scandal

2017-01-13T17:11:00.001+00:00

No 3 in the Flora Maguire Mystery Series

Released on 1st March from Aria Fiction

While researching current affairs which could be discussed over the teacups in Flora's drawing room, I discovered the assassination of a royal couple which almost equalled the atrocity of that of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Duchess Sophie in Sarajevo on June 28th 1914 and was the catalyst for World War I.

I prefer not to regurgitate history in my novels, using historical events as a backdrop to the mysteries Flora gets involved with. The May Coup as it was called is an event Flora's father, William now working for the Foreign Office is distantly involved with as it affected the British Government.

King Alexander I and Queen Draga of Serbia

A bitter feud which existed between Serbia's leading families; the Obrenovich and Karageorgevich dynasties, both of whom struggled for independence from the Turks.

Queen Nathalie

At twenty-two, King Milan Obrenovich I married the beautiful, sixteen-year-old Moldavian, Natalie [Natalija or Nathalie] Keshko. Their only child, Alexander was born a year later. King Milan was an unpopular, autocratic ruler, nor was he a faithful husband. Queen Natalie was reputed to be hot-headed, impulsive and indiscreet. After ten years, they separated and Queen Natalie left Serbia taking ten-year old Prince Alexander, known as Sascha, with her. King Milan removed the Crown Prince from her influence by force, and took him to Belgrade.

King Milan abdicated in 1889 and went to live in Paris, leaving his twelve-year-old son Alexander as king under a council of regency. At sixteen, Alexander proclaimed himself of age, dismissed the regents and their government, abolished his father’s liberal constitution and restored a conservative one. He brought back his father Milan, and appointed him commander-in-chief of the Serbian army, though this didn't last and Milan left again.

King Milan I of Serbia

After a great deal of unpleasant publicity, not to mention the to-ing and fro-ing between Belgrade and their chosen locations of exile, the King and Queen of Serbia divorced in October 1888, after thirteen years of marriage, although later this was declared illegal. Nathalie was in her twenty-eighth year, and considered one of the most beautiful women in Europe, who went to live in Biarritz together with her lady-in-waiting, Draga Mašin. When Natalie discovered her son was having an affair with her lady-in-waiting, she took the view that a liaison with an older woman would be good for her son. However Alexander becamse obsessed with Draga, so the Queen dismissed her. However, Draga returned to Belgrade where she acted as King Alexander's adviser.

Draga [which means ‘dear’ or ‘precious’ in Serbian] Lunjevica, was the daughter of a prominent Serbian family. She married an engineer, Svetozar Maschin at fifteen and was widowed at eighteen. She had two brothers, Nikola (Nicholas) and Nikodije (Nicodemus) and four sisters, Christina (Christine), Đina, Ana (Anne) and Vojka.

Draginja Milićević Lunjevica Maschin

Draga was well read, liked poetry, spoke four languages, and had written for Serbian newspapers whilst she served as a lady-in-waiting. She was also flirtatious and had a bad reputation, which may or may not be propaganda put about by the unhappy royals.

King Milan, who was always broke, wanted a wealthy American for his son, and was outraged at the relationship. Alexander got him out of the way on the pretext of negotiating a marriage for him to a German Princess.

When he was gone, Alexander announced his engagement to Draga Mašhin. When his father found out, the furious Milan resigned as commander-in-chief and left Serbia, refusing to return. The government resigned and Alexander had difficulty in forming a new cabinet. Alexander had his Minister of the Interior jailed for seven years and Queen Natalie banished from Serbia.

An ex attaché wrote of Alexander: King 'Sasha' of Serbia is one of the most offensive and displeasing youths that could be found anywhere from the Bosporus to the banks of the Tagus. His manners are course and brutal in the extreme, fully in keeping with his beetling brows, low forehead, and almost bestial nose and jaw, while the opinions which he vouchsafes with regard to women in general are characterized by an affection of cynicism and disillusion that is revolting indeed.’

They married on 23 July 1900; she was thirty-two; he was twenty-three. Russian Tsar Nicolas Romanov agreed to be Alexander's honorary best man.

On hearing that the marriage had taken place Queen Nathalie said:

‘We must hope that this comedy, for I can speak of it by no other name, may not turn into a most fearful tragedy.’

Rumours of Draga’s pregnancy started soon after the wedding, but those in her private circle knew her to be infertile after a youthful accident, which Alexander refused to believe, although the pregnancy did not materialise.

Draga was made Queen of Serbia, with equal rights to reign with the King. Various institutions founded by Queen Nathalie, and which bore her name were re-named as Queen Draga institutions, as was the Queen's Serbian regiment. A propaganda campaign began, with Queen Natalie pressuring Alexander to divorce Draga, then a story circulated that Draga was trying to get her sister to have a baby and pass it off as her own, and that she had killed her first husband. Draga became terrified her enemies would poison her so she had all her food tasted.

Discontented army officers plotted in September 1901 to kill Alexander and Draga with knives dipped in potassium cyanide at a party for the Queen's birthday on 11 September, but the plan failed since the royal couple never arrived.

By March 1903, a rumour started that Draga tried to have her brother, Nikola Lunjevica, named heir to the throne. Nikola was a junior military officer who threw frequent temper tantrums and once killed a policeman whilst drunk. As the king's brother-in-law, he had also demanded senior officers report to and salute him.

The Assasination

Colonel Dragutin Dimitriević, [Apis]

On June 10th 1903, while Draga and Alexander dined with courtiers and members of Draga’s family at the Old Palace in Belgrade, conspirators surrounded the houses of the Prime Minister and senior officers loyal to king, including several officers of the Royal Guard. The palace guard unlocked the gates at 2.00 am, and a small band of army officers led by Apis [Colonel Dragutin Dimitriević,] the head of Royal Serbian Military Intelligence,entered the palace, killing two of Draga’s sisters and most of the court.

Draga and Alexander heard the crowd approaching and hid in a cupboard in Draga’s bedroom where they held each other and tried to keep quiet.

Apis thought he had seen the king running away, at which a chase and gunfight erupted in the garden. A palace guard shot Apis three times in the chest, though he survived. While Apis lay wounded in the basement of the palace, the conspirators ordered the King's first aide-de-camp, General Lazar Petrović to tell them if a secret room or passage existed. Petrović waited for the deadline of ten minutes to expire, then the doors were shattered with dynamite, but the King's bed was empty.

The couple were found in a secret room behind a mirror or in an alcove - accounts vary. When the partially dressed Alexander and Draga emerged, three officers emptied their revolvers into them, killing Draga and wounding Alexander, who frantically clung to the balcony until an officer drew his sword and cut off his fingers.

Contemporary artist's impression of the killings

Their bodies were mutilated and tossed from a second floor window - some accounts say they were disembowelled, their remains taken to St. Mark's Church, Belgrade and buried in secret.

The Prime Minister Dimitrije Cincar-Marković and the Minister of the Army Milovan Pavlović, as well as the Queen’s brothers Nikodije and Nikola Ljunjevice all died that night.

The National Assembly voted Peter Karađorđević as King Peter I, but international outrage came swiftly, with both Russia and Austria-Hungary condemning the assassinations. When no attempt was made to bring the assassins to justice, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands withdrew their ambassadors from Serbia, froze diplomatic relations, and imposed sanctions.

Russia returned its ambassador after a short, placatory negotiation, followed by other states, leaving only the United Kingdom and the Netherlands to boycott the new Serbian government. British-Serbian diplomatic relations were renewed by decree signed by King Edward VII in 1906.

The Black Hand became increasingly powerful, and in 1914, they ordered the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo that launched WWI.

Queen Natalie converted to the Roman Catholic faith and became a lay sister in the Order of Notre Dame de Sion. As Alexander's sole heir, she donated everything he bequeathed to her to the University of Belgrade and Serbian churches. In the 1920’s, a New York Times reporter asked Natalie why she had not written her memoirs. She replied: 'Memoirs require memories. I have forgotten everything in order to forgive everything.'

Milan died in Vienna in February 1901, aged 46, just six months before his son, while Nathalie lived until she was 81 and died in France in 1941.

More Here at The Esoteric Curiosa

Blog Tour for Alison Stuart

2017-01-03T07:00:00.000+00:00

BLOG TOUR FOR ALISON STUART'S NEW NOVEL
AND THEN MINE ENEMY

The latest swashbuckling 17^th century historical romance from the pen of Alison Stuart!

AND THEN MINE ENEMY is the first book in a two book series (FEATHERS IN THE WIND) spanning the years of the English Civil War from 1642- 1645.

AND THEN MINE ENEMY

A family ripped apart in a country divided by war . . .

England 1642: Hardened mercenary, Adam Coulter returns to England sickened by violence, seeking only peace, but he finds England on the brink of civil war. He has seen first-hand what that will mean for every man, woman and child and wants no part of it.

King or Parliament? Neutrality is not an option and Adam can only be true to his conscience, not the dictates of his family.

Having escaped a loveless marriage, Perdita Gray has found much needed sanctuary and the love of a good man, but her fragile world begins to crumble as Adam Coulter bursts into her life. This stranger brings not only the reality of war to her doorstep but reignites an old family feud, threatening everything and everyone she holds dear.

As the war and family tensions collide around them, Adam and Perdita are torn between old loyalties and a growing attraction that must be resisted.

Read an excerpt…

As the first streaks of light illuminated the cold, grey, colourless morning, the wounded came. The echo of horses’ hooves and the creak of wagon wheels, sent Perdita hurrying downstairs. As she stepped outside, her breath frosted in the cold air and she shivered, thinking of the battle that had been fought the previous day and the wounded men who lay on the hard, frosted ground.

In the forecourt a troop of horse, or what was left of a troop of horse, sat their weary mounts as their commander, a tall man on a bay horse leaned down talking to Ludovic. Even in the grey light she could see from his build that it was not Simon and she slowed her steps.

As she approached him, the man raised his head, his fingers going to the brim of his heavy, iron helmet. She stopped, her breath catching. Adam Coulter.

She wanted to run to him, satisfy herself that he wasn’t hurt but even in the circumstances, any undue haste could be construed as unseemly. Instead she raised her chin and walked purposefully across to him.

‘Adam Coulter? What brings you here?

The answer was obvious and his red-rimmed eyes narrowed. ‘I’ve wounded with me and I can take them no further.’

Perdita moved her gaze to the tired, dispirited faces behind him. Dreading what she might see she turned to the wagons, recoiling momentarily from the stench of blood and worse, and the piteous cries

Adam swung himself down from his horse, wincing as he straightened his back.

Perdita caught the grimace of pain. ‘Are you hurt?’

He shook his head. Beneath the shadow of the helm’s brim, he looked exhausted, his face unshaven and grimy. ‘Thank you for your concern, Mistress Gray, but no I’m not hurt. Just stiff. My men . . .’

‘Take the wounded into the barn.’ Perdita addressed an older man with a greying beard who seemed to carry some authority. She turned to Ludovic. ‘See that there is food and drink for the men. I’ll see to the wounded.’

She supervised the unloading of the wagons, indicating the grey stone solidity of the barn, hurrying ahead as the able-bodied men carried their injured companions into the grey stone solidity of the barn. ‘We heard the sounds of the battle. Where was it?’ Perdita threw the question to Adam, as he helped one of the more lightly injured soldiers off his horse.

‘Kineton village. A place they call Edgehill.’

BUY LINKS

Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Nook, Smashwords,

ABOUT ALISON STUART

Award winning Australian author, Alison Stuart learned her passion for history from her father. She has been writing stories since her teenage years but it was not until 2007 that her first full length novel was published. Alison has now published seven full length historical romances and a collection of her short stories. Her disposition for writing about soldier heroes may come from her varied career as a lawyer in the military and fire services. These days when she is not writing she is travelling and routinely drags her long suffering husband around battlefields and castles.

Connect with Alison at her website, Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads or subscribe to her newsletter for exclusive free reads, contests and more…

To celebrate the release of http://bit.ly/MineEnemy Alison is giving away a $20 Amazon Gift Card. Enter below

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/0d923dde9/?

Book 2 of the Flora Maguire Mysteries

2016-12-01T10:51:00.000+00:00

RELEASED 1st DECEMBER

Even the most glamorous stately houses hide secrets and lies from the past...

For fans of Downton Abbey, a thrilling and romantic mystery set in the glorious Cotswolds landscape.

Flora Maguire is now happily married to Bunny Harrington and living in Richmond when she receives an alarming telegram informing her of her father's tragic death in a riding accident at Cleeve Abbey.

Heartbroken, she and Bunny return to her former home, where she was Governess to Eddy, Viscount Trent, and her father was Butler to Earl Trent.

Flora’s intention was to bury him next to Lily, her mother, who sadly passed away when Flora was a small child.

Mystery surrounds the final resting place of Lily. No-one is willing to talk and, with her father now dead in a suspicious accident, Flora must once again strive alone to uncover hidden family secrets.

Blog Tour-Nadine Dorries

2016-11-29T08:29:00.000+00:00

Publishers' Blurb

The nurses of Lovely Lane – Dana, Victoria, Pammy and Beth – are now in their second year and are about to face some truly harrowing and difficult times on the wards.

St Angelus needs a new assistant matron, but the members of the Liverpool District Hospital Board have overruled Emily Haycock and Dr Gaskell in their choice. Enter the mysterious Miss Van Gilder from somewhere down south.

The life of St Angelus is soon disrupted as her proposals turn the running of the hospital upside down and threaten the jobs of the domestics and porters. But Miss Van Gilder harbours a dark and dishonest secret, and the staff – who are used to looking after their own – set out to uncover it.

Will they do so in time, before her meddling begins to affect the morale of the nurses and put the lives of their patients in danger? For one very sick little boy, especially, it will be touch and go.

Interview With Nadine Dorries

Welcome to the Disorganised Author Blog, Nadine. I am delighted to be included in your blog tour for your new book, The Children of Lovely Lane published this month.

Does writing energize or exhaust you?

It tends to exhaust. It is always the case that if I get to the end of a particularly emotional or difficult chapter, I sleep for about an hour. Sometimes it just drains everything I have out of me, however, the anticipation of writing, energises me. When I wake up in the morning, I'm buzzing. Excited about opening up the lap top and beginning a new writing session. I love Sunday's as this is the day I have all to myself to write.

Have you found that being a writer has spoiled your enjoyment of reading? Does your internal editor kick in?

Writing hasn't enjoyed my experience of reading other authors, in fact, I do it a lot. I listen to audio books when I'm driving. I think reading the work of others is almost essential research for a writer to undertake. I don't know how anyone could continue to be inspired to write if they didn't read.

The premise for the ‘Lovely Lane’ books is very appealing. Do you write what you love or do you try to deliver what readers want?

I just don't know what readers want because I'm such an amateur author! I just let the fingers move and out the words flow. It's the little things, one small memory can be the catalyst for a whole book. That is very much what happened in Angels. I was nurse Pammy. I spoke out. I got into serious trouble!

Writing can be isolating, so do you socialise with other writers and share experiences/advice or have you always worked in isolation?

Writing is not my day job, it's a hobby. I have a busy family and social life and so I never feel isolated, in fact, the opposite, I crave the space and peace and quiet to write.

What did you edit out of this book?

It is an enormous book, in fact it is really two books in one. I just couldn't find a point where I wanted to stop writing. Very little was edited out. In fact, I don't think my editor has ever removed very much from any of the books I've written.

Which chapter/section was the most difficult to write?

It would be a massive spoiler to say which chapter was the hardest. I pulled on personal emotion and tragedy. It totally drained me to write it.

Which chapter/section of the story was the most enjoyable to write?

Ditto the chapter I loved. But, it's always nice to have a love story thrown in too.
I am still in touch with the nurses I trained with. I can't help seeing them, hearing their words and remembering their antics. One found reminded me of the funniest nursing story I have ever heard and it went straight into the next Angels book.

Do you feel you have chosen the right time in your life to be a writer, or regret not starting earlier?

I definitely regret not starting earlier. I wish I had taken writing courses and put pen to paper in my twenties. I'm scared I will get too old to write and then I remember Mary Wesley, who didn't even publish her first novel until she was seventy one and when I do, I stop moaning.

Name your favourite book and the one you abandoned or wanted to throw against the wall?

My favourite book changes all the time. I recently re read The Remains Of The Day and loved it. I also loved Robert Harris's Conclave.

I'm too polite to say which books I've abandoned!

Thanks so much for answering my questions, Nadine, and may I wish you the best of success with your new title. below is a link for Nadine's new book and her previous novel, also set in Lovely Lane.

Nadine's Amazon Page

Nadine Dorries Blog Tour

2016-11-25T19:17:00.002+00:00

BLOG TOUR

Interview with Nadine Dorries

Nadine Dorries is the author of the No. 1 bestselling Four Streets trilogy and Ruby Flynn. To promote her latest novel, The Children of Lovely Lane I am taking part in the blog tour.

Do stop by at The Disorganised Author for my Interview with Nadine about her new book..

Stops on the Tour:

28th November - I Read Novels - Q and A
29th November - The Disorganised Author - Author Interview

30th November - Rachel Bustin - Giveaway

1st December - 23 Review Street - Extract

2nd December - With Love For Books - Q and A

5th December - A Sky Filled With Sparkling Stars - Extract

Nadine's Website

King Edward VII's Coronation

2016-11-23T17:36:00.002+00:00

Flora Maguire returns to Cheltenham in the second book in the series. It is summer of 1902 and the country is celebrating the coronation of a new king.

When Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, after nearly 64 years as Queen, her son, Albert Edward assumed the throne as Edward VII at the age of 59. His was the longest service as Prince of Wales in history, only surpassed by Prince Charles on April 22, 2011.

Victoria and her son had a difficult relationship, with different approaches to both duty and life. 'Bertie' as he was known was the first royal heir to attend university, studying Chemical Engineering at Cambridge.

Prince Albert died of typhoid handling one of Edward’s first scandals, and Victoria blamed Bertie for his death and said of Edward : “I never can or shall look at him without a shudder.”

Bertie fulfilled most of the widowed queen’s ceremonial duties, although he was forbidden from seeing State Papers. His coronation was planned for June 26, 1902, a year after his ascension. It had been so long since the last coornoation, the courtiers had to refer to old records as they had no idea how a coronation should proceed. The ceremony was to be held at Westmineter Abbey with a banquet which would include 2500 quails, and hundreds of chickens, partridges, and sturgeons.

Viewing stands were erected by local businesses along the route and had purchased refreshments to sell to the crowd- St. George’s hospital had spent £2000 on building stands (about £200,000 in today’s currency), and another £500 on refreshments. By mid-June, London’s hotels were full as the crowned heads of Europe arrived, most of them related to ‘Bertie’

On Saturday June 14, the king woke with lower abdominal pain. His physician, Sir Francis Laking, was summoned, and by noon the King was feeling better and set out on a planned weekend excursion with Queen Alexandra to the Royal Pavilion at Aldershot, about sixty miles southwest of London. That evening the King and Queen attended a military tattoo, after which the king’s abdominal pain returned along with a fever.

Sir Francis Laking arrived at Aldershot early that morning, by which time the king had developed rigors and increasing pain. Laking consulted with Thomas Barlow, another physician and Mr. Alfred Fripp, a surgeon at Guy’s Hospital, and the King’s personal surgeon since 1897. Lord Victor Crichton was also summoned by Laking and boarded the royal train at Waterloo for Aldershot, but was intercepted by a telegram recalling the summons as the King was feeling better. The King was annoyed a surgeon had been sent for, concerned about the rumours which would begin so close to the coronation date.

On Monday, June 16, the King, after consultation with Drs. Laking and Barlow travelled to the Royal Palace at Windsor by carriage. He was heavily medicated, leaving the Queen to review the troops in his stead. He rallied at Windsor, but continued to have intermittent fevers. On Tuesday, June 17, Sir Francis Laking again advised consulting with a surgeon,but the king wouldn't hear of it. Laking stayed to persuade him and finally, he agreed Edward “confessed that the company of his physician had its limits,” and agreed to see Mr Frederick Treves, Surgeon-Sergeant to the King, and a surgeon at London Hospital.

Mr. Treves examined the King for the first time on Wednesday, June 18, and advised rest, after which the King improved. By Saturday, June 21, the King’s fever had gone and the swelling in his abdomen was nearly resolved. By this time rumours of the King’s illness began to circulate, but when the Press Council asked for confirmation Sir Francis Knollys sent out a response which said, “Windsor Castle, - Not a word of truth in reports. – Knollys.”

By Monday, June 23, the King returned to Buckingham Palace and that evening attended another grand pre-coronation State dinner. An eight-course meal including quails, saddle of lamb, ortolans, consume, gateau, ices, and anchovy canapés and different wines served with each course.

By the early morning on Tuesday, June 24th, the King’s fever had returned, along with the pain and abdominal mass. Urgent consultations were obtained with Drs. Laking, Barlow, and Mr. Treves, but also with the two most eminent surgeons in the realm, Lord Lister and Sir Thomas Smith, all of whom were in agreement that the King required emergency surgery for appendicitis.

The King refused; and was reputed to have said, "I shall go to the Abbey,” with Dr Treves responding, “then you shall go as a corpse.” The King finally agreed and Frederick Hewitt was summoned to Buckingham Palace, where an operating theatre was created, in the billiard room. Some accounts say the king knighted his doctors before his surgery, though others that this happened afterwards.

The King had had a 48inch waistline, was a heavy smoker with bronchitis, and suffered obstructive apnoea with the anaesthetic and turned purple with hypoxia. Sir Frederick took hold of the King’s beard and pulled his chin forward, opening the airway enabling him to breathe again:

Sir Frederick Treves removed a large abscess and the King emerged from the operating room at 2:00pm. The next day he was “sitting up in bed smoking a cigar.” Within two weeks it was clear he would make a full recovery.

The crowds that had descended upon London for the Coronation dispersed, and the crowned heads of Europe returned home. The enormous amount of food obtained for the celebrations was quietly packed off to the Little Sisters of the Poor, and the charities in London’s East End all reported enormous largesse to distribute amongst the poor, who “had never eaten so well.”

The Coronation was rescheduled for August 9th, although the majority of the King’s extended family did not return for the new date. The ceremony was simplified to accommodate the recovering king, who was well enough to physically support the 80-year-old and ailing Archbishop of Canterbury. He even assisted the frail cleric to his feet at one point. After the ceremony, the King was asked whether he was tired, and he replied, “Wonderfully, I am not.”

Painting of the Coronation by Edwin Austin Abbey

Most English towns held their own celebrations, from bonfires, to tree planting, concerts showing of Georges Melies’ film etc. Cheltenham held a tree planting ceremony plus concerts and a showing of Melies film. In the Cotswolds village of Bourton-on-the-Water, villagers set up goalposts in the section of the River Windrush that runs through the centre of the village for a riotous game of football. The tradition of ‘football in the river’ has been played every August Bank Holiday since, with two teams of six play in knee-deep water for fifteen minutes each way and ends with a fair on the green.

Football In The River

King Edward's reign lasted only nine years, but he was charming, a bon viveur, fastidious about his dress, and a notorious royal womaniser with a reputed 50 extra-marital affairs to his name. He was also involved in two divorces but was adored by his wife, Queen Alexandra and was an affectionate father, possibly due to his mother’s disinterest in him as a boy.

Film of Coronation Procession

The coronation inside the Abbey was not filmed, but the director Georges Melies made a film using actors which was shown in cinemas round the country.

George Melies' Film

Sources:
http://www.information-britain.co.uk/famdates.php?id=709 http://www.information-britain.co.uk/famdates.php?id=709
http://www.appendicitis.pro/the-reginald-fitz-memorial/the-appendicitis-of-king.html

Pinkertons Detectives

2016-11-15T08:00:00.000+00:00

In my novel Murder on the Minneapolis, my female sleuth becomes friends with an enigmatic German gentleman with an interest in the man who died on board. He turns out to be a Pinkertons Detective, which led me to research the agency's interesting founder.

The inception of the agency cannot exclude the remarkable life of, Glaswegian, Allan Pinkerton, who eloped with a singer, Joan Carfrae when he was 23, and sailed for Quebec with her the day after their wedding.

The ship ran into a storm off the coast of Halifax, blown off course and was shipwrecked in Nova Scotia. The Pinkertons were both injured, and lost everything they had in the submerged hold, leaving only what they were wearing and the silver Allan had in his pocket. When they stumbled onto the beachhead, the couple were surrounded by Indians who demanded their trinkets, including Joan’s silver wedding ring.

Changing his mind about Canada, Allan and Joan settled in Detroit, Michigan. He bought a wagon, a horse, cooking utensils and dried meats before heading west to Chicago. There, Pinkerton sold the horse and wagon for lodging in a hotel near the lakefront and the stockade of Fort Dearborn. Chicago in the 1850’s was a town of rutted streets and cobbled together timber storefronts. Lill's Brewery downtown was hiring barrel makers, so Allan built a cabin on the banks of the Fox River near Dundee and opened a cooperage shop

An honest man, Allan treated his employees well and undercut the Chicago firms and within a year, he had ten craftsmen working for him. As early as 1844, he was an ardent abolitionist, his shop functioning as a "station" for escaped slaves traveling the Underground Railroad to freedom in the North. Their son, William, was born in 1846. Twins Robert and Joan followed soon afterwards.

Allan helped the Cook County Sheriff to apprehend a gang of counterfeiters, which led to his appointment as deputy sheriff of Kane County, Illinois, and, later, as Chicago's first full-time detective. By later 1848, he accrued the highest number of arrests for burglaries and murders than any of the experienced police on Chicago's squad roll.

In the 1850’s, Pinkerton left his job with the Chicago police force, partnered with attorney Edward Rucker and formed the North-Western Police Agency specializing in the capture of train robbers, counterfeiters and provided private security services for a variety of industries.

As rail transportation increased, Pinkerton's agency solved a series of train robberies during bringing Pinkerton into contact with George McClellan and Abraham Lincoln.

Their building bore a sign with a logo of an eye and the words, 'We Never Sleep', which was the origins of the term, 'Private Eye'.

Their Detective Agency in Washington Street, Chicago bore a The Rules:

•    Accept no bribes
•    Never compromise with criminals
•    Partner with local law enforcement agencies
•    Refuse divorce cases or cases that initiate scandals
•    Turn down reward money (Agents were well paid)
•    Never raise fees without the client’s pre-knowledge
•    Keep clients apprised on an on-going basis

Kate Warne

Born in New York, Kate Warne was a slender, brown haired widow who walked into the agency offices in 1856 in answer to an advertisement for detectives in a Chicago newspaper. Pinkerton said: ‘Kate argued her point of view, saying women could be useful in worming out secrets in many places which would be impossible for a male detective.’

Kate Warn [holding post] and Allan Pinkerton [Seated right]

In 1858, Kate gained the confidence of the wife of a Mr Maroney, who stole $50,000 from the Adams Express Company, and with Warne’s help, $39,515 was returned. Mr. Maroney was sentenced to ten years in Montgomery, Alabama.

In April 1861, the Confederate States of America's cannons in Charleston began firing on Fort Sumter. Pinkerton was asked by Major General George B. McClellan to set up a military intelligence service. Pinkerton became head of the Union Intelligence Service, the forerunner of the U.S. Secret Service. He took Warne, Timothy Webster, and later George Bangs west to set up a headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, to follow McClellan's Ohio division.

Kate Warne was one of five agents sent to Baltimore, to investigate secessionist activity prior to the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln. During the investigation, they unveiled the plot to assassinate Lincoln on his way to take office. Posing a rich southern lady visiting Baltimore, Kate infiltrated social gatherings, like the Barnum Hotel where she discovered details of the plot. Lincoln gained four more years before John Wilkes Booth shot him at the Ford Theatre.

After the War, Pinkerton was hired by the railroad companies to track down Jesse James, but failed to capture him. The railroad withdrew their financial support, so Pinkerton continued the search at own expense. James allegedly captured and killed one of Pinkerton's young undercover agents, at which Pinkerton gave up the chase which some consider his greatest failure.

Allan Pinkerton and Abraham Lincoln

Kate worked on high profile cases, unusual in that women were barred from the police force until 1891 and could not be detectives until 1903. She became supervisor of Pinkerton's Female Detective Bureau, but her expenses became a sore spot between Pinkerton and his brother, Robert, who believed she was simply accompanying him as his mistress. Pinkerton would never confirm the suspicions about his relationship with Kate. He adored her and she continued to work to his standards and deliver important information through her many clever guises.

Kate caught pneumonia on New Year's Day, 1868, and died shortly afterwards with Pinkerton at her bedside. Pinkerton neither confirmed nor denied Kate was his mistress, but she was buried according to his wishes in Pinkerton's family plot in Chicago's Graceland Cemetery, and he wrote in his will that that Kate's plot was never to be sold.

In 1876, Robert Pinkerton conspired with two lead agents not to hire female detectives. Allan sent his son a blazing telegram:

"It has been my principle to use females for the detection of crime where it has been useful and necessary. With regard to the employment of such females, I can trace it back to the time I first hired Kate Warne, up to the present time. And I intend to still use females whenever it can be done judiciously. I must do it or falsify my theory, practice and truth."

Allan Pinkerton died in Chicago on July 1, 1884, and was buried in Graceland Cemetery, Chicago. Soon afterwards, his sons rid their agency of female operatives.

The achievements of Pinkertons Detective Agency are too extensive to mention in this blog, but their main cases can be read about below:

Today, Pinkertons agency employs approximately 28,000 women.

Source

Pinkertons
American Experience

Flora Maguire Book 2

2016-11-06T22:15:00.003+00:00

King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra are on the throne and Flora is now married to Bunny Harrington, and living in Richmond, Surrey with him and her mother-in-law, Beatrice. After a minor fire in their basement, Flora receives a telegram saying her father has died suddenly in a riding accident.

Heartbroken, she and Bunny return to Cleeve Abbey, with the intention of burying Riordan Maguire with her mother, who died when she was a child. When she discovers no one knows where Lily Maguire was buried, and with her father now gone, Flora sets out to discover if any of the longer serving estate staff can shed some light on what happened to her.

Although disapproved of by Lady Vaughn, the new tram system in Cheltenham gives Flora a certain independence, enabling her to go out and about asking questions about a mysterious poisoning incident her father appeared interested in before his death, as well as the mystery of a local girl who went missing after a summer fair.

Family secrets start emerging which combine to convince Flora there is also something untoward about her father's accident. She finally learns something about her mother, but despite Bunny’s warnings, walks into a situation from which she has to be rescued and further revelations contrive to alter Flora's perception of herself.

Published by Aria Fiction on 1st December 2016
[available for pre-order]