JOHN RASHDALL, ALFRED TENNYSON AND THE MARSDEN CHILDREN

JOHN RASHDALL,  ALFRED TENNYSON AND THE MARSDEN CHILDREN

JOHN RASHALL THE PREACHER AND THE POET ALFRED TENNYSON An interesting aspect of my book The Water Doctor’s Daughters,  is the lifelong friendship of  the poet Alfred Tennyson  and the Reverend John Rashdall.  The pair had grown up together in rural Lincolnshire, and were contemporaries at Cambridge

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A FAILED APPEAL TO CHARLES DICKENS…..

A FAILED APPEAL TO CHARLES DICKENS.....

 SCHOOLGIRLS IN EXILE My  book, The Water Doctor’s Daughters,  is the  biography of a dysfunctional family,  but  it is also Victorian  era true crime.  It centres on the case of French born  governess  Mlle Celestine Doudet.  In 1855 the governess was tried over the deaths of  her

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Sydney Launch of The Water Doctor’s Daughters

  THE GENESIS OF THE LAUNCH I hadn’t  considered  a separate launch for The Water  Doctor’s Daughters in Australia, but a few  months ago a generous  offer came from  Sydney’s  Ashfield  Library to do a book signing.  It was to be part of their very popular  ‘Authors

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A HIVE OF ACTIVITY; Promoting The Water Doctor’s Daughters

A HIVE OF ACTIVITY; Promoting The Water Doctor's Daughters

In The Beginning..The Water Doctor’s Daughter’s When I was writing my true crime book, The Water Doctor’s Daughters, I had a moment of panic and said to my husband Rob, ‘Oh dear, what if someone publishes this one day and I have to give talks about it?’ 

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A QUANDRY FOR QUEEN VICTORIA

A QUANDRY FOR  QUEEN VICTORIA

In my non-fiction  book, The Water Doctor’s Daughters,  Queen Victoria is an important figure. BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT- QUEEN VICTORIA AND HER FRENCH DRESSER Early in  1842,  Victoria employed a well educated young Frenchwoman as one of her wardrobe mistresses.  Célestine Doudet  was  born in Rouen  on June 

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Dr Tardieu – advocate for abused children

Dr Tardieu - advocate for abused children

This brief article  is a tribute to a very special  Frenchman;  Dr Auguste Ambroise Tardieu,  who was born in Paris in 1818.     Dr Tardieu headed the team of  French doctors who performed a post-mortem on the disinterred body of English schoolgirl Marian Marsden in 1854. 

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The Water Doctor’s Daughters

The Water Doctor's Daughters

THE WATER DOCTOR’S DAUGHTERS IS COMPLETE! After all  my angst,  the index to The Water Doctor’s  Daughters was completed without  Rob  filing for  divorce on the grounds that I was too irritable  and unreasonable to live with.  Mind you, neither of us  will  be taking up indexing

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