Catherine Meyrick's Blog, page 26
June 1, 2021
Sisters at War by Clare Flynn
Today, I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Clare Flynn’s newly released book Sisters at War as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club.
Over the following days, Hannah agonised over how to tackle what she had begun to think of as ‘The Judith Situation’. She became increasingly convinced that her sister was indeed having a relationship with the young priest. Sam’s reminder that she was in loco parentis was particularly poignant. Their father had never been a good...
May 28, 2021
The Elusive Elizabeth Robinson
This article was originally published in Western Ancestor, the quarterly magazine of the Western Australian Genealogical Society, September 2020 issue (Vol.14, No.11)
My father, a fourth generation Tasmanian, began researching his family history around sixty years ago but, unfortunately, was not particularly interested in the female lines. When I inherited Dad’s papers, I decided to fill in the missing names and dates. How difficult could that be—a simple matter of ordering a few certificates...
May 23, 2021
The Cotillion Brigade by Glen Craney
Today, I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Glen Craney’s new book The Cotillion Brigade as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. The Cotillion Brigade is a novel of the American Civil War and the most famous female militia in American history.
Lagrange, Georgia
May 1856
Nancy gathered the crinoline folds of her hooped white gown and slipped unnoticed through the rear door to the bedroom’s third-story veranda. She kicked off her slippers and climbed the ...
May 21, 2021
Chat with Catherine Meyrick
This interview is from Lisette’s Writer’s Chateau where Lisette Brodey interviews fellow authors not only about their books and approaches to writing but life in general.
Lisette is the author of ten novels and one short story collection. She writes in a range of genres from literary fiction, women’s fiction and chick-lit to YA paranormal and Coming-of Age. You can read more about Lisette at her website.
What is your latest book?
My latest book i...
May 14, 2021
Book Review- Soldier of Fate by Brook Allen
Brook Allen’s Antonius trilogy follows the life of Marcus Antonius from his beginnings as the son of a man disgraced by failure through to the military commander and lover of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, tracing his exploits as a military leader and his family relationships. The first, Son of Rome, concentrates on the period from the death of his father through his dissolute youth, his marriage to a freed family slave, the beginning of his career as a military commander and his attempts to red...
May 4, 2021
The Queen’s Rival by Anne O’Brien
Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Anne O’Brien’s The Queen’s Rival, a novel of Cecily Neville, Duchess of York. The Queen’s Rival has been recently released in paperback.
Duchess Cecily teaches a lesson in Ludlow Castle, October 1459
We were in occupation of one of the corner chambers in the old gatehouse keep at Ludlow Castle because it was a good vantage point from which to detect approaching marauders. Despite the lack of light and the all-pervasive reek of damp...
May 1, 2021
My Reading – April 2021
Rooted : an Australian History of Bad Language by Amanda Laugesen
In 1821, the Reverend Robert Cartwright, an Anglican minister who had arrived in Sydney in 1810, provided testimony to the Bigge Commission, which was investigating how effective transportation was in deterring crime.
The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves
If you were looking for Baikie’s Cottage on the Ordnance Survey map you would not find it mentioned by name, though Black Law Farm is.
April 26, 2021
Wanted A Husband
Matrimonial advertisements were a common feature of the Wanted section of Australian newspapers in the second half of the 19th century; however, those placed by women were far less common than those by men. This is to be expected seeing that in the 19th century men outnumbered women, particularly in the earlier years, by almost two to one, and single men often worked in remote locations offering little opportunity for social interaction with women.
The scarcity of eligible women is reflected ...
April 16, 2021
Book Review – Beware the Lizard Lurking by Vivienne Brereton
Beware the Lizard Lurking is the second book in Vivienne Brereton’s House of the Red Duke series which follows the fortunes of the House of Howard and the 2nd Duke of Norfolk, the elderly Thomas Howard.
While Phoenix Rising, the first book, ranged over the years between 1497 and 1520, Beware the Lizard Lurking follows a strict chronology between January and July 1513. It begins where Phoenix Rising left off, with a marriage in Cornwall, and ends with Henry VIII’s invasion of France. The c...
April 5, 2021
The Custard Corpses by M J Porter
Today, I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from M J Porter’s newly released book The Custard Corpses as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club.
Excerpt
“I saw the paper last night,” Sam confirmed. “I was expecting you. And no, I’ve nothing new to offer. It’s been many years now, and while I would hope one day to catch the perpetrator, I just don’t know if that’s possible. Not now.”
Rebecca nodded, almost too eagerly, her hand hovering over the mug of tea, wait...
