Jane Davis's Blog, page 3
August 16, 2022
I Think it’s Going to Rain Today
Here in the UK, we had the driest July since 1935, and the draught has continued into the first two weeks of August. But as I type I can hear a scattering of rain on the glass of the conservatory roof. The last time we had a long spell without rain, I was working in...
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August 13, 2022
Virtual Book Club: Alan Fisk introduces Cupid and the Silent Goddess
Today I’m delighted to welcome Alan Fisk to my Virtual Book Club, my author interview series in which authors have the opportunity to pitch their book to your book club. Alan has had many occupations, including economist, Air Force officer, technical writer, fruit picker, editor, and unemployment benefit claimant (not in that order). He has...
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Virtual Book Club: Alan Risk introduces Cupid and the Silent Goddess
Today I’m delighted to welcome Alan Fisk to my Virtual Book Club, my author interview series in which authors have the opportunity to pitch their book to your book club. Alan has had many occupations, including economist, Air Force officer, technical writer, fruit picker, editor, and unemployment benefit claimant (not in that order). He has...
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July 20, 2022
Know your place, boy!
One of the defining features of the Victorian era – the era in which my novel, Small Eden, is set – was its rigid class system. The system and its success depended upon each and every person knowing their place. And if they didn’t know it, they’d soon be reminded of it. The Top Rung...
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June 26, 2022
Margarita Morris introduces A Long Way From Warsaw
Today I’m delighted to welcome Margarita Morris to my blog. If you have yet to discover Margarita’s wonderful novels, she writes historical fiction, placing ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. As a student of French and German at Jesus College, Oxford, it was an unforgettable trip to Berlin in 1987, including the former East Berlin, that...
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June 11, 2022
The First Lady Star of the Music Halls
I was asked recently if I think that writing is an act of preservation. I have to say I do. I’m related on my father’s side of the family to the music hall star, Annie Adams. I haven’t been able to licence a photograph for publication, but the V&A has an image of Annie in...
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A question of manners (part 1)
Etiquette (/ˈɛtikɛt, -kɪt/) noun. The customary code of polite behaviour in society or among members of a particular profession or group. What is Robert Cooke to do? A new century will soon be upon him and none of the women in his circle are behaving as he expects. Have they all forgotten the rules? Rule #1: Without...
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May 25, 2022
The angel in the home
Not one of the women in Robert Cooke’s circle is behaving as he expects. His wife is speaking her mind, his mother is taking herself off to Scotland of all places, his daughters are being taught science at school (science, in the name of all that’s holy!). And he’s about to discover that the winning...
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May 13, 2022
A backward place of some 2500 souls
The setting for my tenth novel Small Eden is Carshalton, called Aulton in the earliest records, meaning Old Town. I have called it home for over twenty years. But what did it look like during Robert Cooke’s lifetime? The Wandle: leisure, industry and life Just eleven miles from Westminster-Bridge, the village of Carshalton is dissected...
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May 2, 2022
A potted history of pleasure gardens
In my tenth novel, Small Eden, I tell the story of how Robert Cooke creates a pleasure garden in memory of his infant sons. What exactly is a pleasure garden? The short answer is that it’s an outdoor space dedicated to pleasure. Before the eighteenth century, London had few places that fitted this description. Perhaps...
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