Books that have enriched my life
I’ve always been fascinated by old buildings and what could be a more romantic setting for a story than a palazzo on the Grand Canal? I found the allure of Venice impossible to resist and it provides a wonderful setting for The Lost Daughter of Venice, my latest historical novel. This famously beautiful canal is …
[IMG: War Graves Commission] When the slaughter of the Great War ended in 1918, the nation was left in mourning for a ‘Lost Generation’ of young men. It didn’t take long before girls, who had grown up with the expectation of a future as a wife and mother, realised there simply weren’t enough potential husbands …
The most astonishing fact about Venice is that it exists at all. This ancient city is built on a series of low mud banks off the coast of mainland Italy that are subjected to frequent tidal flooding from the Adriatic sea. Using impermeable stone, timber piles and larch wood, early Venetian builders evolved a unique …
My mother taught me to use a sewing machine when I was eight years old and I began to make my own clothes straight away. At first I used my grandmother’s treadle Singer and when I was ten my mother gave me her ornate but ancient hand-cranked Singer.
William Morris was one of the 19thcentury’s most well-known designers and a key figure in the Arts and Crafts movement.