The American Boy The 1812 War with America brought a ‘torrent’ of American prisoners-of-war to swell the numbers already incarcerated at Dartmoor ‘Depot’. The first 250 arrived in 1813 and remained there until 1815. The youngest American prisoner was John Seapatch, who was twelve years old. He was born in Massachusetts and according to prison… Read more »
The Last Dance – Tango, Jive, Hip-Hop or Waltz? Introduction: An activity aimed at stretching your creative imagination, and to encourage you to dip your creative feet into a new pool of ideas. Instructions: Pick a type of dance that you have never tried and a short piece of music to go with it. Listen… Read more »
Creative Writing Cocktails: Shake and stir your creative inspiration by Myfanwy Cook is now available as a Kindle edition https://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Writing-Cocktails-creative-inspiration-ebook/ “This series of short and structured activities is designed for you, or your writing group, to explore different settings, prompts and ideas and for you to experiment and have fun by stirring and shaking up your… Read more »
The ‘true’ scent of Austen’s London Did Jane know about the Albany? If so what did she think about it? These were two of the questions that popped into my mind arriving back in Piccadilly. The Albany doesn’t have a street number, but it is just known as ‘The Albany’, or ‘Albany’ (Albany Court Yard)…. Read more »
Having turned right into Clifford Street there is a rather elegant red-brick 18th century house of the type that the Middleton family in Sense and Sensibility might have lived in. You could almost imagine them stepping out through the doorway, with its Ionic columns, into the bustling Mayfair street intent on some frivolous outing. We then… Read more »
Having turned right into Old Bond Street one had just a tiny glimpse of the type of houses that Willoughby lodged in in ‘Sense and Sensibility’ where he wrote his selfish and heartless letter to Marianne. Although the sound of cars and taxis has replaced that of horses and carts it does still have at… Read more »
Hidden History – Glimpses of Jane Austen’s Regency London The Detour The Regency Period and those who write about it both in non-fiction and fiction have provided me and others like me with a pathway to escape from the day to day chores, the supermarket jingles and in my case Dartmoor’s dark wintery days…. Read more »
Historical Fiction provides the writer with the opportunity to carry messages from the past into our lives today. It is a legacy,a way of remembering, but also a warning about what might have happened and what could happen today.
