WWI hospital at Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey)

Highclere Castle is the setting for the popular drama series, Downton Abbey. During WWI, Downton is turned into a convalescent hospital. The story is fiction but the hospital established at Highclere Castle in 1914 was real.

Writing a Trilogy – the pros and cons

It was with some trepidation that I approached my publisher with suggestions for the novel I wanted to write next. I’d already had seven books published – love stories with a dash of mystery, set at various turning points in history between the Restoration and the Regency. This time, I wanted to expand my horizons …

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The ‘war to end all wars.’

The Great War was on a scale that hadn’t been seen in living memory. It tore families apart, forcing the men into the great mincer of the war machine and spitting some of them out at the other end. Nearly a whole generation of men was lost and those that did return home would never be quite the same again.