Actresses had a bit of a reputation in Victorian times. I can’t imagine that it was entirely fair. There must have been some very serious and talented women on the stage. But the rest were not always taken seriously and seemed to provide professional males with hours of endless amusement and innuendo. I found an…
Author: gbadmin
More information on Eleanor Williams
New information now included at the bottom of this post When I look at the stories I have written so far I am convinced that some of them will never be finished. There are always new and important details to be added. Time has frayed the details sometimes and it isn’t easy to restore them…
From May 2009
On Saturday I was out once again, meeting my public. This time it was Border’s in Cardiff, a shop in the old David Morgan building on The Hayes. It is a nice shop, large and busy and I was certainly very well looked after by the staff, especially Vicki. However, promotion remains hard work.…
Cnapan
I was booked to do a book signing in Aberystwyth and we didn’t fancy going up there and then back again in one day. So we looked for somewhere to stay. The first couple of places we tried were full and so we ended up in a lovely place we haven’t visited for a…
How to deal with Magistrates
One of the great things about the writing that I do is that I am free to follow leads as they turn up. Earlier this week my work was all planned out. I knew what I was going to do. I fought off the attractions of a lost village in Carmarthen Bay and turned to…
Additional information on Henry Tremble
Henry Tremble – 20 April 2009 I was always concerned that when the book finally went on to the shelves I would find out that I had written something wildly inaccurate, That I was guilty of perpetrating a significant inaccuracy. I have constructed all the stories carefully to maintain interest and extract the drama. But…
Bedside Manners
I spend a lot of my time snuffling around the damp undergrowth of the internet, like a pig looking for truffles. Sometimes you find them and sometimes you don’t. And sometimes you can pick up a faint scent. Often it is fascinating stuff but it doesn’t lead anywhere. You know there is a story there,…
Blogs from March 2009
Being Gobby – 31 March 2009 What’s wrong with people? Don’t they understand the idea of shopping early for Christmas? What about phrases like “avoid disappointment” or “whilst stocks last”? Have they no meaning anymore? There was hail beating its way down Oxford Street. There were Incas playing pan pipes. But people wouldn’t…
Visiting Anglesey
We arrived at the church, small and neat as country churches often are, and there was a church warden standing just outside the door watching us. We were in the churchyard of St. Gallgo’s in Llanallgo on Anglesey. We had done our research thoroughly before we left home, so we knew our targets and could…
How to Write for Newspapers
Some of the writing I come across in my researches is quite outstanding. It is so different from the sort of writing you see today in newspapers. In the 19th century there was more a sense of narrative and this lay at the very heart of what they wrote. When you read something like this…