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#HistFicThursdays - Medical History (specifically thyroids!)

 This week has been a mad one. Close to the start of the Christmas period, we found out that Mum would be having a thyroidectomy on Candlemas (the final day of the Christmas season). Of course, this was not enough to spoil Christmas. As readers of this blog are no doubt aware, Christmas happens in a big way in this house. But when the day finally arrived it was nonetheless met with, if not fear, definite nervousness. I'm pleased to say that the procedure seems to have been a great success! And wouldn't it have been? Thyroid treatment has been developing for over four thousand years. You know me - somewhat obsessed with putting doctors, nurses, physicians and surgeons in my historical fiction - I made a (very brief) wander into the realms of researching the topic. I was surprised by the results. The earliest I could find a reference to treatments for thyroid issues (in this instance a goitre) came in 2697BC, when the legendary Yellow Emperor recorded the use of seaweed in treati...
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#HistFicThursdays - Drumbeats - Julia Ibbotson

 This week for #HistFicThursdays, I'm delighted to be teaming up with The Coffee Pot Book Club to shine a spotlight on Julia Ibbotson's fabulous book, Drumbeats!

So, let's meet the book...

It’s 1965, and 18 year old Jess escapes her stifling English home for a gap year in Ghana, West Africa. But it’s a time of political turbulence across the region. Fighting to keep her young love who waits back in England, she’s thrown into the physical and emotional dangers of civil war, tragedy and the conflict of a disturbing new relationship. And why do the drumbeats haunt her dreams?

This is a rite of passage story which takes the reader hand in hand with Jess on her journey towards the complexities and mysteries of a disconcerting adult world.

This is the first novel in the acclaimed Drumbeats trilogy: Drumbeats, Walking in the Rain, Finding Jess.

For fans of Dinah Jefferies, Kate Morton, Rachel Hore, Jenny Ashcroft


You can find Drumbeats on #KindleUnlimited via this Universal Link!



 Now, let's meet the author:


Award-winning author Julia Ibbotson herself spent an exciting time in Ghana, West Africa, teaching and nursing (like Jess in her books), and always vowed to write about the country and its past. And so, the Drumbeats Trilogy was born. She’s also fascinated by history, especially by the medieval world, and concepts of time travel, and has written haunting time-slips of romance and mystery partly set in the Anglo-Saxon period. 

She studied English at Keele University, England, specialising in medieval language, literature and history, and has a PhD in linguistics. She wrote her first novel at age 10, but became a school teacher, then university lecturer and researcher. Her love of writing never left her and to date she’s written 9 books, with a 10th on the way. 

Julia is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association, Society of Authors and the Historical Novel Society.

You can find Julia on these links:


To follow the rest of Drumbeats tour, click on the banner below:
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Comments

  1. Cathie Dunn12 October 2023 at 11:09

    Thanks so much for featuring Julia Ibbotson today.

    Cathie xx
    The Coffee Pot Book Club

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dr Julia Ibbotson12 October 2023 at 13:29

    Thank you so much for featuring my book, Drumbeats, today on your lovely blog. Much appreciated.

    ReplyDelete

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