Some people imagine that novelists
either live in an ivory tower or in a garret a slave to the muse. In fact, all
the authors I know are dedicated to writing but neither they nor I are cut off
from the world.
On the 29th of August, I woke
at 6 a.m. very relaxed because I finished writing, revising and editing Wednesday’s
Child, Heroines Born on Different Days of the Week, Book Four.
Until 8.30 I read and replied to e-mails
instead of keeping to my usual routine of writing from 6 a.m. until 10 a.m.
with time out for breakfast.
Rob, my gardener arrived at 9.30 a.m.
and weeded my mini-orchard of plums, pears, four apple trees and a cooking
apple tree. We collected the windfalls, and picked six pounds of ripe apples
and two pounds of plums.
While working in my organic garden in
which I grow herbs, soft fruit, stone fruit and vegetables, I experience a
connection with past times when people ate local produce in season. Delicious
produce uncontaminated by artificial fertilisers and pesticides.
At 10 a.m. my seven-year-old
granddaughter arrived to spend the day with me. She ate two apples, played on
her i pad next then with playdough. I sorted out the apples, kept some to eat
and made juice with the rest. Afterwards, I picked the last of the French Beans
and prepared them for the freezer.
At eleven o’clock the three of us had a
break. I made hot chocolate for my granddaughter and tea for myself and Rob,
who shares my interest in history and is also a member of Watford Writers, which
meets on Monday evenings.
To recreate the past in my novels, I
read historical non-fiction which often gives me ideas for my novels. Rob and I
discussed my recent purchase is Set in A Silver Sea, Volume One of Arthur
Bryant’s History of the British People. When Rob left I gave him some plums,
apples, tomatoes and a large courgette, as well as homemade creamy leek and
courgette homemade soup from the from the freezer.
For lunch, we ate sandwiches that
included home grown cucumber and tomatoes while sitting outside in the garden.
Afterwards we planted her broad bean plants. The two she sowed at school looked
dead but she told her teacher that her green-fingered grandmother would save them.
She went home at 2 o’clock so I put my
feet up, caught up with more e-mails for an hour, read a chapter of The Silver
Sea, then watched an episode of Borgia on Netflix. At five o’clock I made a
spinach, peas and curd cheese curry and chapattis for my granddaughter, her
fifteen and twelve-year old brothers. It’s one of their favourite meals. (I
included the recipe at the end of my novel Far Beyond Rubies set in Queen Anne
Stuart’s reign, 1702-1714.) For dessert, we enjoyed mangos.
In the evening, I dealt with some
writing related business matters, revised, and edited Chapter One of my new
novel, Thursday’s Child, Heroines Born on Different Days of the Week, Book
Five. On Monday evening, I shall read it at Watford Writers and receive
constructive comments from members.
Almost time for bed, I watched another
episode of Borgia on Netflix. It’s more sexually explicit than anything I
usually read or watch but the history is interesting.
So, this typical autumn day in my life
proves I neither live in an ivory tower nor a garret.
Monday’s Child by Rosemary Morris
All my historical
novels have strong themes with which modern day readers can identify with. In
Monday’s Child, the tension mounts as war with France becomes inevitable.
At heart I am a
historian, so Monday’s Child is rich in historical detail.
Back Cover
In March 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte
escaped from exile in Elba. In Brussels, eighteen-year-old Helen Whitley, is
aware that war with France between Britain and her allies, is inevitable. A
talented artist, Helen is aware of the anxiety and fear underlying the balls,
breakfasts, parties, picnics and soirees - held by the British. In an attic,
she paints scenes in which she captures the emotions of daily life during the
hundred days before the Battle of Waterloo.
While Helen lives with her sister and
wealthy brother-in-law, Major Tarrant, she waits for Major, Viscount Langley,
to arrive in Brussels and ask her to be his wife. Langley, who serves in the
same regiment as Tarrant, is her brother-in-law’s closest friend, therefore she
assumes her sister and Tarrant will be delighted by the match.
She is grateful to her brother-in-law
for including her in his household. Nevertheless, Helen regrets being dependent
on his generosity, so she’s looking forward to being mistress of Langley’s
heart and home.
Before Langley leaves England to join
his regiment, he visits his ancestral home, to inform his parents that he
intends to marry Helen. Yet, when he arrives in Brussels to join his regiment,
he does not propose marriage to Helen, and her pride does not allow her to
reveal the misery caused by Langley’s rejection
Review by Juliet Waldron
Regency Addicts Rejoice. Everything
for the Regency addict here, with a heroine of great beauty but small fortune,
all the strategies required for keeping one's place in the "ton," and
plenty of interfering relatives. Taking it a little further afield than Jane
Austen did, this story is set in 1815 Brussels where all the eligible young men
are soldiers in Wellington's army, awaiting an attack by Napoleon. Despite the
wartime tension, there's still plenty of time for balls, visiting, and morning
gallops. The author knows her stuff--from clothes, to the many strictures of
proper behaviour, which seem to us today as limiting as the ladies' underwear.
Not only the detail but dialogue too shows a lively understanding of the
period; I didn't see a single teacup laid out of place. While this book is a
Regency delight, it's no fantasy confection. Class differences and gender
relationships are portrayed realistically, sometimes jarringly so, with no
candy-coating. I was particularly pleased by the marital choice made by
Monday's Child--aptly named "Helen." It left me with no doubt about
her HEA.
Medieval.
Yvonne, Lady of Cassio.
18th Century
Tangled Love, Far Beyond Rubies,
The Captain and The Countess
Regency
False Pretences, Sunday’s Child,
Monday’s Child, Tuesday’s Child (Heroines Born on Different Days of the Week.
http://www.bookswelove.net/authors/morris-rosemary-romance-historical-uk/
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