Elizabeth Gaskell. 29th September 1810 – 12th November 1865.
Monthly Archives: September 2019
Eighty Years Ago
This image is taken from Soviet footage in the city of Lviv, made on the 28th of September, 1939. The communists parade through the streets following a successful invasion. Lviv, in Ukraine, changed from Polish to Russian governance at this time.
Control of western Ukraine changed hands a number of times during the Second World War. It was the site of the beginning of the Nazi Germany’s Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.
1940 Soviet stamps celebrating the 1939 “liberation” of Ukrainian and Belarusian people from the Polish regime.
At the end of the war, world leaders including British Prime Minister Winston Churchill were responsible for the region falling behind the so-called Iron Curtain, trapping ethnic Ukrainians in the USSR.
Today, Lviv is one of Ukraine’s most patriotic cities.
Today in Georgia
The mountains and river (our lunch table view!) around Vardzia, Georgia, with its cave city built into the cliff face, and nearby Khertvisi Fortress.
The Landowner’s Secret in Other Formats
The Landowner’s Secret is available to order in large print, dyslexic, braille and DAISY formats.
You can order them here:
New South Wales, 1885
When Alice Ryan wakes to find thugs surrounding her cottage, on the hunt for her no-good brother, she escapes into the surrounding bush.
It is wealthy landowner Robert Farrer who finds her the next morning, dishevelled, injured, and utterly unwilling to share what she knows. With criminals on the loose and rumours that reckless bushrangers have returned to the area, Robert is determined to keep Alice out of danger, and insists on taking her into his home-despite the scandal it may cause. Convincing her to stay on with him for her own safety, however, is going to take some work.
What Robert doesn’t expect is his growing attraction to the forthright, unruly woman staying in his home. Before either of them can settle into their odd new situation, their home and wellbeing come under threat and they will need to trust each other to survive. But they are both keeping secrets, secrets that have the potential to ruin their burgeoning love, their livelihood … and their lives.
Sixty Years Ago: a Ballet Rehearsal in Amsterdam
The newly established New Amsterdam Ballet in rehearsal under the direction of Mascha ter Weeme. 24th September 1959.
Two years later the company would merge with Nederlands Ballet to form today’s Dutch National Ballet, directed by Sonia Gaskell until 1969.
On this day…
This is the 21st September edition of New York’s Sunday News from 1958, announcing that US civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been stabbed in the chest the day before, at Blumstein’s Department Store in Harlem.
The attacker was a woman named Izola Curry, and the crime surprised many as she was African American.
Surgery was required to removed the knife, and King stayed in hospital for almost two weeks.
Bran Castle
We visited Bran Castle – allegedly Dracula’s castle, but really a royal residence – yesterday. It’s like a Disney house!
On this day: Australians in Borneo
17th September 1945: Soldiers of the Australian 2/31st Battalion pass through Bandjermasin in Borneo as they take responsibility for the island after the surrender of Japan in the Second World War. It was reported they were given an enthusiastic welcome by the locals.
The island of Borneo was under Japanese occupation from the end of 1941. Bandjermasin is now part of Indonesia.
From the collection of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.
Book Feature: Lost Railway Journeys from Around the World
Tomorrow is the 189th anniversary of the opening of the world’s first steam-powered public railway: the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
So, for the occasion, here’s a book I received as an ARC a while ago, but never had the time to review: Lost Railway Journeys from Around the World by Anthony Lambert. The description is beneath the cover.
From the great cathedral-like railways stations of the steam age to obscure lines built through spectacular landscapes to open up countries before the advent of motorised road transport, this book is a celebration of our lost railway heritage and the lines that can no longer be travelled.
Through stunning images, Lost Railway Journeys evokes the romance and drama of these journeys, taking the reader as close as they can possibly get to this lost world of dining cars, sleeping cars, station porters and international rail travel.
Organised by continent, all of these routes have stories to tell and the lost journeys are captured in the old postcards and posters that accompany photographs drawn from collections and archives across the world.
Release Day for The Landowner’s Secret!
Happy release day to me! If things have gone to plan I’m in Romania at the moment, so I’m not home to celebrate.
You can read the first two chapters of The Landowner’s Secret HERE.
Here are the links to order it:
And here’s what it’s about:
New South Wales, 1885
When Alice Ryan wakes to find thugs surrounding her cottage, on the hunt for her no-good brother, she escapes into the surrounding bush.
It is wealthy landowner Robert Farrer who finds her the next morning, dishevelled, injured, and utterly unwilling to share what she knows. With criminals on the loose and rumours that reckless bushrangers have returned to the area, Robert is determined to keep Alice out of danger, and insists on taking her into his home-despite the scandal it may cause. Convincing her to stay on with him for her own safety, however, is going to take some work.
What Robert doesn’t expect is his growing attraction to the forthright, unruly woman staying in his home. Before either of them can settle into their odd new situation, their home and wellbeing come under threat and they will need to trust each other to survive. But they are both keeping secrets, secrets that have the potential to ruin their burgeoning love, their livelihood … and their lives.
In Times Gone By... 
