Category Archives: Uncategorised

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Happy Birthday to The Artist’s Secret!

The Artist’s Secret – the second book in my Brindabella Secrets series – came out on this day one year ago!

Despite their growing attraction, both Peter and Elizabeth have secrets that will come between them.

New South Wales, 1887

Peter Rowe’s life is in the city, but his soul is in Australia’s southern tablelands – a place he’s never seen. Taking the new land manager’s position on the thriving estate of Endmoor is the chance he needs to discover what happened to the family he has never met. What he doesn’t expect to find in the bush is his employer’s talented, beautiful sister.

Elizabeth Farrer’s world is changing rapidly. An artist whose work has begun to gain acclaim, her brother’s marriage has made her redundant in her own home and she intends to leave the country and make a life of her own. Her plans would take her far from her beloved New South Wales, but with the arrival of Endmoor’s newest employee – a man unlike any other she has met – she discovers there might just be a reason to stay right where she is.

Just as they conquer their most difficult obstacles, old prejudices rise up and threaten to keep them apart …

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Research Trip!

Sonya Heaney

This was my second visit to Monte Cristo in six months. It’s a Victorian homestead on the outskirts of Junee (NSW) and is said to be the most haunted house in Australia. And this time we had it all to ourselves!

So many horrible things have happened in its history (e.g. the hole in the wall in the last picture is where the housekeeper’s son was kept chained in the dairy).

My first home when I lived in London was at the top of a 17th century building that was built on top of a 13th century crypt. Being in that building alone at night is the sort of thing that might make you believe in ghosts!

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On this day: Warsaw Castle Bombed

 

The Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland was bombed by the Nazis on the 17th of September, 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War.

 

The ballroom on fire.

While some attempts were made to save parts of the building, in the weeks that followed Adolf Hitler gave German soldiers orders to demolish the building.

 

In early October plans were made to blow the castle up, and the interior was dismantled and treasures were either put in storage or seized by Nazi dignitaries.

 

The destruction of the castle was part of the Pabst Plan, to rebuild Warsaw as a model city for the Nazis.

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On this day…

Reviving an old post that seems disturbingly appropriate at this time …

In Times Gone By...

eyam_church_derbyshire_1890 england victorian britain

The church in Eyam, circa 1890.

Tomorrow the village of Eyam in Derbyshire, England recognises “Plague Sunday”.

The day remembers the decision of the village’s reverend and his wife – in 1665 – to convince the plague-stricken residents to barricade themselves in so that the disease wouldn’t spread to other villages in the area.

Hundreds of people died, but other communities survived.

Below is a picture from last year, when we visited the old well on a hilltop outside the village, which is where others would come to leave the people of Eyam food.

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On this day: an assassination attempt in Belgium

Assassination_attempt_on_king_Leopold_II_of_Belgium_in_Bruxelles_1902Italian anarchist Gennaro Rubino tried - and failed to assassinate Belgian King Leopold II in Brussels on the 15th of

Italian anarchist Gennaro Rubino tried – and failed to assassinate Belgian King Leopold II in Brussels on the 15th of November, 1902.

1902Italian anarchist Gennaro Rubino tried - and failed to assassinate Belgian King Leopold II in Brussels on the 15th of November, 1902. Gennaro Rubino in 1894.

The would-be assassin in 1894.

The King, who was returning from a service to honour his wife Marie Henriette, who had died two months earlier, was not hit by any of the three bullets Rubino fired. However, Grand Marshall, Count Charles John d’Oultremont was nearly killed.

Rubino, who had fled Italy to avoid a lengthy prison sentence there, died in prison in 1918. Prior to the failed assassination, he had been working in Britain as a spy on Italian anarchists – a position he lost when it was discovered he sympathised with them.

At the time of the attempt on his life, the King – in his late sixties – had been estranged from his wife for some time, and had taken a teenage girl as his mistress. He died in December, 1909.