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Showing posts from September, 2023

#HistFicThursdays - Inspirational Series - Merlin

 I remember when I was little, watching a Making Of documentary about Robin of Sherwood . One of the points which the writer made was that each person who retells the Robin Hood legend adds a little something to the story. He introduced the idea of the occult – the Baron de Belleme in particular is a terrifying character – and this later influenced other Robin Hood adaptations, including the character of Mortianna in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves . You might be surprised to find that this blog is not actually about any version of Robin Hood. In fact, it’s about the TV series Merlin . That’s your recommended viewing for wet days during summer, if we have any rain ever again after this heatwave! I first came across Merlin when it was released in 2008. It was such a Big Deal that a trailer for the series was shown at the cinema when I went to watch Tropic Thunder with my older sister while living with her in Ipswich. I mostly just remember the dragon and thinking it looked ok. Some...
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#HistFicThursdays - The Sight of Heather - Ally Stirling - Snippet

 This week for #HistFicThursdays, I'm delighted to once again be teaming up with  The Coffee Pot Book Club  for author  Ally Stirling 's blog tour! Today, I'm sharing an excerpt from her fabulous new book,  The Sight of Heather ! First of all, let's meet the book... For centuries, the fae folk and spae women of Scotland were feared – and persecuted. Life in the 1800s countryside, with its unforgiving climate, was both magnificent and harsh – testing cultures, beliefs and the loyalties of crofters. The first in this series, The Sight of Heather , begins a journey of allegiance, sacrifice, and fortitude in a land of bold, resilient women. Jessie’s ideal life spirals when she learns she is a first daughter in a biological line of ‘spaes’ endowed with unique gifts of spiritual sight and healing, aided by powerful ancestral stones. Backed by a vindictive priest intent on charging Jessie with murder and witchcraft, the new owner of the Cruachan Manor plots to rou...
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#HistFicThursdays - The King's Command - Rosemary Hayes - Guest Post

It's #HistFicThursdays, and I'm delighted to offer you a fabulously insightful guest post from  Rosemary Hayes ,   as part of her  Coffee Pot Book Club  tour. Discover the plight and persecution of the Huguenots, and why the author chose to write about them in  The King's Command . But first, let's meet the book... Blurb 16 year old Lidie Brunier has everything; looks, wealth, health and a charming suitor but there are dark clouds on the horizon. Lidie  and her family are committed Huguenots and Louis XIV has sworn to stamp out this ‘false religion’ and make France a wholly Catholic country. Gradually Lidie’s comfortable life starts to disintegrate as Huguenots are stripped of all rights and the King sends his brutal soldiers into their homes to force them to become Catholics. Others around her break under pressure but Lidie and her family refuse to convert. With spies everywhere and the ever present threat of violence, they struggle on. Then a shockin...
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#HistFicThursdays - The Pied Piper of Hamelin (If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise) - For Revenge or Revenue?

 For me, there is no one in history more fascinating than the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Poised between the historical and the mythological, his legend is one which has inspired multiple works of art and studies of science. None have given a conclusive answer to who he was or what happened to the children he stole. The only certainty is that Hamelin town did indeed suffer a lost generation at the end of the 13th Century. This sort of figure is a dream come true for a historical writer, especially one who likes to teeter on the edge of mythology. I couldn't let a chance like this pass me by. In fact, the events at Hamelin are also destined to be interwoven in another book I'm in the process of writing - whether that ever gets finished or not remains to be seen! So what are the facts? Well, two things of note happened in what is now northern Germany in the year 1284: a fire in the city of Hamburg which destroyed all but one house in the area, and the mysterious disappearance of 130 c...
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#HistFicThursdays - Book Review of "An Unwilling Alliance" by Lynn Dawson

 The first thing to mention about this book was that it was not what I was expecting! I thought, from the blurb and the fact it had been shortlisted for a military literary award, that this would be a military story with a romance, but this is definitely a romance set during a war. Given this difference, it took me a while to get my head into the book There is a line in the book when Roseen observes how eager and enthused Kelly becomes when he is discussing the Navy, and Dawson's writing is exactly the same. The book springs to life as the campaigning starts and the account of the offensive against Copenhagen is handled skilfully and compassionately. The movements of the military machine were well-researched and the care taken to set the reader in that surrounding is commendable. I found most of the characters irritating to one degree or another - although this is not a criticism, as I have read plenty of great book with protagonists who annoy me! Roseen I found most annoying of al...
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