Gorgeous artwork from Sailesh Thakrar for my short story in the Winter Special of The People's Friend "The Faithful Companions".
It's a historical one about a thatcher and the legend of a ghost dog called the Church Grim :)
To celebrate the release of my latest book, the collection is at the discount price of £3.99 for the first week before going up to £5.99 -- so get it before the offer runs out if interested! ;)
In The Wherryman’s Daughter, Charity knows her father is risking his life and their wherry the Marsh Lady by smuggling gin and tobacco. Can she foil the smugglers or will she too disappear on the Broads?
Twenty seasonal stories of drama, romance and adventure set in Victorian and Regency Norfolk, with smugglers, ghosts and the all too treacherous Broads. Locations include Cromer, Winterton-on-Sea, Great Yarmouth and St. Benet's Abbey. Perfect for a holiday read or while staring out of a stormy window, wishing you were somewhere else. Features evocative descriptions of coast and country interwoven with historical details about local folklore alongside bathing machines, the Norwich yards, Victorian spiritualism, the history of ice-cream and omnibuses.
Previously these stories were published in The People’s Friend magazine and can now be read in an easy to dip into format. Included are photographs of Norfolk scenes and wildlife taken by the author.
Bitter Herbs and Sweet Pills
When a new pharmacy is opened in the village, herbalist Heather worries the old ways will be replaced by lethal concoctions and quack cures.
The Sea Stone
Hetty once believed in her grandfather’s stories about mermaids, but will a special stone passed down by her family really lead to her intended?
The Green Mists
Matthew ignores his mother’s warnings about the fey-like, mysterious Willow. Will an old folktale doom the courting couple?
Tell it to the Bees
After a devastating fire, Dorothy goes searching for her last remaining family. All she encounters is a sullen grandfather and his garden of bees.
Rivoli’s Gelato
Retired governess Agatha has returned to her childhood home to run an ice-cream cafe, only something doesn’t want her to succeed...
The Lucky Net
Seb has always been superstitious, but his marriage is under threat when he clings too much to his good luck charms.
The Runaway Bathing Machine
Maid Lizzie knows she shouldn’t be seeing her sweetheart while accompanying Lady Ashworth, but sneaks off anyway. Little does she know her employer has a similar plan in mind.
The Harvest Maiden
The making of the corn dolly has fallen to Merry this year. Can she make a suitable vessel in time?
The Silver Darlings
Gellie comes from Scotland to Great Yarmouth each year in search of her father, only to discover a young woman who looks exactly like her.
The Matchmaker
Spinster Hazel is forced to risk her reputation when her step-sister elopes to Gretna Green.
The Reluctant Passenger
A Norfolk born country girl finds herself inadvertently kidnapped by a London omnibus – all for the price of a fare!
The Fen-Nightingale
Bird enthusiast Horace stalks the Norfolk Broads in search of this elusive bird – will he instead find the family he left behind?
The Lantern Man
When Laura’s husband is left for dead on the riverbank, she must confront a childhood fear to discover the truth.
Ghostly Footsteps
Tessa has always done what her aunt demands, even played a ghost for her fake seances. Will she have a change of heart when otherworldly footsteps start following her?
The Marshland Monk
After a storm tears apart her father’s church, Mary discovers treasure and an unfriendly spirit...
The Seashell Necklace
The Dutch fair has returned to the beaches of Great Yarmouth and Eli plans on proposing to childhood sweetheart Morag. When a necklace goes missing and Morag ends up taken to the Custom House, he must find the true thief.
The Rushlight
Ruth’s little sister is terrified of tales about the ghost dog Black Shuck. When she goes out to pick rushes, a dark figure lures her through the snowstorm.
Including Carried by the Wind, Love Written on the Petals and The Cocoa Tree.
A lovely 5 star review for my latest historical romance The Bride Who Rode in With the Storm, published by Satin Romance :)
Buy links can be found here:
Illustration by Tracy Fennell
The horse bolted across the shoreline, dragging the bathing machine and Chastity. They thundered through the holiday-goers.
Brightly coloured beach huts are a common sight along the British seafront, but they weren’t always so static. Back in the 18th century, as can be seen throughout classic books, the latest health craze was ‘taking the waters’ – going to the spas in Bath – or a ‘change of air’. With poor sanitation and smog in crowded cities, a fresh sea breeze was often what doctors prescribed. Seaside holidays were gaining appeal.
The only problem was the need for propriety jarred with enjoying the beach. Men and women were banned from mixing and specific areas were cordoned off. Swimming costumes for men only became a rule in the 1860s. Women’s swimming costume weren’t very comfortable. These dresses were made of heavy flannel and would even have small weights attached to the skirt to stop the waves from lifting it up and exposing the lady’s – shock and horror! – covered legs.
Bathing machines were a way of allowing women and men the privacy of sea bathing without causing a scandal. Even Queen Victoria owned one.
These machines were huts on wheels, some a basic changing room while others were quite fancy with decorations and a looking glass. Horses would pull them to the shoreline. When the holidaymaker was ready, they opened the door and went down the little steps – more getting their feet wet than actually swimming. Dippers were also employed to plunge the swimmer in and out of the water for something more bracing.
I rather like the thought of a bathing machine to relax in, able to wheel myself wherever I fancied, but there could be some peril involved. I was surprised to discover deaths connected with bathing machines. In the Illustrated Police News dated 1871, a young woman died in Great Yarmouth after leaving her bathing machine. There was also something similar in Dieppe. Although it was after almost drowning in the sea rather than the actual machine, but that did not stop the newspaper titling the article – Death in a Bathing Machine!
By 1901, separate swimming areas were no longer imposed. There was no need for modesty and so the bathing machines lost their appeal. Rather than being broken up and forgotten, most had their wheels removed and were turned into the beach huts we know today.
What are your memories of the beach and their huts? Would you have preferred the privacy of a bathing machine?
In my latest short story,
Surprise at the Seaside, in The People’s Friend Summer Special, Lady Ashworth
finds herself in peril when a clandestine meeting leads to her struggling with
a runaway bathing machine.
Some research links from when I was writing the story :)
http://www.victoriana.com/library/Beach/FashionableBathingSuits.htm
http://www.regrom.com/2019/03/22/regency-reader-questions-spas-and-bathing/
http://www.ourgreatyarmouth.org.uk/page_id__162.aspx?path=0p5p99p
https://www.visitnorfolk.co.uk/inspire/history-of-norfolk-seaside-holidays.aspx
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/audio-stories-victorian-seaside/zfxjkmn
As I dipped down beneath the waves, my hair spread out amongst the seaweed, tawny strands braided with reds and greens. Pebbles gleamed with a thousand shades of joy and peeking between them were tiny jelly lumps.
Beyond, the waters were deep. Endless. I grasped at the shadows, greedy to know, wanting to dive and feel the needle shimmer of little fishes tickle my arms. Orange claws poked out, sand billowing into mist. A dark shape heaved past, as heavy as a crashing wave.
It twisted, whiskers flicking as if laughing at me. Tiny bubbles darted away, and I knew my time in this other world was short. The hands around my ankles tightened, heaved, and I erupted from the sea.
My brother staggered back, his straw boater kicked off as we fell together, entangled in my petticoats. Sand crunched beneath, gritty grains smearing across my palm. Mother raced towards us, waving her parasol and shouting just what did we think we were doing.
A flash fiction I really enjoyed writing during The People's Friend #PFWritingHour on twitter :)
Kitty-Lydia Dye: Norfolk Photo Gallery (kittylydiadye.blogspot.com)
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| Illustration by Tracy Fennell |
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A little bit—all right very, very late, but the issue
is still out 😉
In The People’s Friend Special No. 202 is my seasonal story set on the coast, A
Piece of the Sea.
Christmas is coming and the Dutch fair has returned to
the shores of Great Yarmouth. Our character, a young basket weaver called Eli,
intends on proposing to his Scots gutter girl sweetheart, only for trouble to
find them when a stallholder accuses Morag of stealing a very expensive
necklace…
With it being only about 113 miles across the sea from
Amsterdam to Great Yarmouth, it’s no surprise that Dutch traders came to ply
their wares. The fishing industry in this part of Norfolk boomed thanks to the
Dutch sharing their fish preserving methods.
Great Yarmouth’s herring fair became known as the
Dutch fair when the Dutch would beach their boats during hightide just before
Christmas to sell toys, gifts and sweets to local people as well as the
Scottish fishermen and gutter girls who arrived during the herring season. Some
of the sweet treats included gingerbread and domino tile (dominosteine), which
were several layers of Lebkuchen, jelly and marzipan with a dark chocolate
icing.
One such fair was immortalised by George Vincent in
his painting ‘Dutch Fair on Yarmouth Beach, Norfolk’ (1821) and is now part of
the Great Yarmouth Museums Collection. Daniel Defoe also described
visiting one of these fairs during his Norfolk travels in 1727.
There have been historical records of a herring fair
at Yarmouth beach since the 12th century, and the last one was
held during the 1830s.
Throughout Norfolk our coastal neighbour’s influence can still be seen, such as in the local architecture around Great Yarmouth and even the name of Norwich’s football team. Flemish weavers escaping religious persecution in the 16th century made their home in the city, bringing with them their bright yellow canaries and weaving techniques.
I couldn’t help but throw in a few folklore references
in the story as well. While browsing the market stalls, the couple find a strange
wooden carving of a gnomish creature—a Korrigan (small-dwarf) from Breton folktales.
They are fairy-like beings who like to dance around fountains.
However, Korrigans can also refer to female spirits
who haunt fountains and wells. They are beautiful during the day, but when
night comes their hair turns white and their eyes red. If a man becomes entranced by their singing, he will be lured to a watery grave. Korrigans are
mentioned in Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera.
Although A Piece of the Sea’s thief is something a
little more earthly, one little girl believes it to be a Witte Wievan playing
tricks—the spirit of a wise woman. The Dutch legend originates some time in the
7th century. Wise women who had died would remain on this earth,
either assisting or complicating matters for those in trouble. They were
depicted as wearing white, roaming gravesites and emerging from the mists.
