Elizabeth Hopkinson's Hidden Grove

Shaun Evans, Natalie Dormer and Aneurin Barnard in The Scandalous Lady W. Photo: BBC2. Today, I enjoyed a family day out at Harewood House, near Leeds, West Yorkshire.  One of the things I was most looking forward to was a chance to see the portrait of Seymour, Lady Worsley, subject of BBC2's recent courtroom drama, The Scandalous Lady W.  The BBC2 website has this to say: "In 1781, wealthy heiress Seymour, Lady Worsley, caused outrage when she cuckolded her husband, respectable MP Sir Richard Worsley, and ran away with her lover Captain George Bisset. Furious, Sir Richard responded  by suing Bisset for criminal conversation and demanding a record £20,000 for the damage done to his property - Lady Worsley. While Seymour and Bisset hid out in a London hotel, Sir Richard and his lawyers set about proving his wife's infidelity through a series of devious schemes. When the case came to court, Sir Richard lied about his relationship with Seymour, painting a perfect picture of ...

Last night, I had my first experience of Liars' League Leeds.  Until a few weeks ago, I had never even heard of it.  In fact, when I first read the call-out for stories, I thought it sounded like a Yorkshire Locke Lamora! It turns out there are Liars' Leagues in Leeds, London and New York- at least.  The premise is simple.  Writers write.  Actors read.  Audience listens.  Everybody wins.  Every month or two, the Liars' League gives a call-out for stories on a particular theme.  Five or so are chosen.  They are then read out by actors on the night.  It's like being on the radio.  Only live.   The theme for this particular night was "Ladies and Gentlemen".  The stories chosen were nicely varied, and covered a variety of settings and moods.  It was interesting how many of the other writers had taken the typical showman's announcement as a starting point.  (That approach to the theme hadn't even occurred to me)....

My historical fantasy novel Silver Hands is now on sale!  To celebrate, I'll be doing a couple of blogs about researching the historical background to the story, starting with this one about research I carried out locally. Amazingly, you often don't have to go far to find a whole wealth of knowledge and inspiration when it comes to history, even with a story like Silver Hands , which ranges in geographical scope from the English coast to a Japanese castle town.  There are three museums local to my native Yorkshire that get a special mention from me in the "acknowledgements" section of the book for being particularly helpful.                                             The Bay Hotel, Robin Hood's Bay The first is the Captain Cook Memorial Museum at Whitby.  Whitby and its neighbour, Robin Hood's Bay, were extremely useful to me in researching the parts of ...