The Market Stall Girl released August 1st!

I'm so excited to share the news that my next historical saga is The Market Stall Girl, which will be released in Kindle ebook and paperback August 1st.

1913 Yorkshire, England.
Beth Beaumont enjoys her life as a rhubarb farmer’s daughter in West Yorkshire. Working on the family’s stall selling the fruit and vegetables grown in their own fields gives her a sense of purpose and is healthier than working in a dangerous cotton mill.
Although not thinking of marriage, when Beth meets Noah Jackson, a village miner, she is suddenly very aware of Noah as a man who could change her mind. The summer brings the two closer and their feelings deepen while Noah studies hard to fulfill his dreams of becoming a teacher and securing a better life than his parents endure.
But, a disaster at the coal mine changes lives forever. Noah’s plans are shattered. His love for Beth is put at risk, and he fears they can never find happiness together.
However, another man wants Beth. Louis Melville, the wealthy son of a local gentry family, is acutely aware of Beth’s beauty and he wants her for himself. At first, he is willing to offer marriage, but when Beth turns him down in favour of Noah, Melville, furious to be denied, wreaks revenge with devastating consequences.
Will Beth and Noah find the happiness they wish for or will overwhelming events break them apart?

#Edwardian #historicalsaga #familysaga #Wakefield #Yorkshire @amazonkindle

http://mybook.to/TheMarketStallGirl

Where Dragonflies Hover to be published in Norway!

It is with great excitement that I can now reveal I am going to be published in Norway with my split era novel, Where Dragonflies Hover.

The translation rights have been bought for Where Dragonflies Hover by Norwegian publisher Cappelen Damm AS. https://www.cappelendamm.no/
This is an excellent opportunity for one of my books to reach an ever wider audience by being translated into another language.
I am so thrilled with this new development and am looking forward to seeing this new partnership grow.

More information about the trade deal can be found here. http://www.booktrade.info/index.php/showarticle/66293

Sometimes a glimpse into the past can help make sense of the future …Everyone thinks Lexi is crazy when she falls in love with Hollingsworth House – a crumbling old Georgian mansion in Yorkshire – and nobody more so than her husband, Dylan. But there’s something very special about the place, and Lexi can sense it.

Whilst exploring the grounds she stumbles across an old diary and, within its pages, she meets Allie – an Australian nurse working in France during the First World War.

Lexi finally realises her dream of buying Hollingsworth but her obsession with the house leaves her marriage in tatters. In the lonely nights that follow, Allie’s diary becomes Lexi’s companion, comforting her in moments of darkness and pain. And as Lexi reads, the nurse’s scandalous connection to the house is revealed …

Amazon UK

Amazon USA

Amazon Australia

Victorian Dresses

There is a fantastic Facebook page called the The Corseted Beauty - https://www.facebook.com/thecorsetedbeauty/
and it showcases the most beautiful fashion from different eras. I'm putting a few photos on this page of the Victorian era, which would be similar to what some of my characters would wear in my novels.

Evening dress, Scotland, ca. 1865

Evening dress, American, ca. 1865

Cincinnati Art Museum

Evening dress, ca. 1850s

Kerry Taylor Auctions

Evening dress, by Emile Pingat, ca. 1885

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Afternoon dress, American, ca. 1860. 

From the Mint Museum:
"In the 1860s, the fullness of the skirt moved to the rear of the dress with this volume of fabric supported by bustle pads, wire mesh frameworks or cage bustles. This afternoon ensemble includes a matching cool weather jacket lined in wool fleece, a short-waisted bodice, a bustled overskirt with a slight train, and an underskirt with a flat front and full back. The unique triangular-shaped large pocket on the overskirt is called a "parasol pocket" although it is a true pocket and was not intended to hold a lady's parasol. "

Ball gown, by Maison Soinard, Paris, ca. 1868-1869

From the McCord Museum:
"The date is substantiated by those of Caroline-Virginie de Saint-Ours-Kierzkowski's honeymoon in Europe and her documented Paris visits in 1868 and 1869, which determine when she bought the gown with the Paris label. 

Caroline-Virgine de Saint-Ours-Kierzkowski was fashion conscious. In a diary written during her European honeymoon in 1868-1869 she remarked on the dress of New York women, finding them, to her taste, over-dressed. In London, she commented on her enjoyment of window-shopping. And while visiting Paris, she wrote of La Messe des Élégants at the Église de la Madeleine : she wryly observed that at this late mess, people seemed to be moved more by the display of the toilettes than by the service. "

Ball gown, England, ca. 1850s
Christies' Auctions

Day dress, by Atelier A. Felix, Paris, ca. 1884
From the Galleria del Costume di Palazzo Pitti / Europeana Fashion

Evening dress, by the House of Paquin, ca. 1895
Museum of Decorative Arts, Berlin / Europeana Fashion

Ball gown, ca. 1865. 
Wien Museum