Nicola Cornick's Blog, page 40

A Lady of the Fancy!

Today I am blogging over at the UK Historical Authors Blog about Regency boxing. Joanna, heroine of Whisper of Scandal, is a Lady of the Fancy, a patron of the boxing fraternity. How she came to have this role when she dislikes boxing and any form of violence is part of the background to the book. Like my heroine I am not a huge fan of boxing but I certainly found the research for that part of the book to be fascinating. My favourite snippet was that because boxing was technically illegal, fans would head out of London to a fight carrying fishing rods as a decoy. Given that there could be a crowd of up to 30 000 converging for a fight, that was some fishing trip! Read more about Regency boxing here!

©2010 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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A Taste of Scottish Ale

Traquair House, in the Scottish Borders, is Scotland's oldest inhabited house. Dating back to 1107, it was originally a Royal hunting lodge set in the Ettrick Forest. The Kings and Queens of Scotland came there to hunt wild cat, deer, wolves, wild boar and bears. Later the Stuarts of Traquair supported Mary Queen of Scots and the Jacobite cause. There is more on the fascinating history of Traquair here. These days at Traquair they brew the Traquair House Ale, described as: "a potent Liquor as brewed by the Laird in the ancient brewhouse of the Oldest inhabited House in Scotland" and comprising spring water, malt, hops and yeast.

The famous rear gates known as the Bear Gates, that guard the approach to Traquair House have been closed since 1745 when the last person to walk through them was Bonnie Prince Charlie. The fifth Earl of Traquair bid his royal guest farewell and promised that the gates would not be re-opened until the Stuarts were restored to the throne. Strictly speaking the Hanoverian dynasty was descended from the Stuarts since their ancestress was Elizabeth of Bohemia, daughter of James I. However another Stuart will ascend the throne as and when Prince William becomes king as he is descended from both King Charles II and King James II in the Spencer line. Will the famous Bear Gates be re-opened then?

©2010 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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Ashdown's Armada Warning Beacon

Another piece of Ashdown history fell into place for me a couple of weeks ago when I was reading some of the local Ashbury archives. I had known that in 1588 in response to the threat from the Spanish Armada, a chain of warning beacons and bonfires had been set up along the South Coast of England to be lit at the first sight of the invasion. What I had not been aware of though was that a chain of beacons stretched inland across the whole of the country so that the entire populace would be aware that a foreign army was on its way. Once the first beacons were lit on the South Coast the watchers stationed on the tops of hills across England would light their fires to pass the message on. As a result many English hills are to this day still called "Beacon Hill." This was an ancient custom and the Armada threat is the most famous example of when the signalling system was used but it was still in place at the time of the Napoleonic Wars for precisely the same purpose.

At the northern end of Ashdown Wood is a place called Red Barn and up until the 1950s there were some Elizabethan cottages there. At the time of the Armada these were used to house the signallers responsible for keeping watch and lighting the warning beacon. Ashdown House would not be built for almost 100 years but there was already a hunting lodge on the site and the land belonged at this time to the Essex family of Lambourn. The beacon itself was on Alfred's Castle, the Iron Age hillfort, which had a commanding view westwards to Fox Hill  and northwards to the Ridgeway. Nothing remains at Red Barn now except part of the cottage gardens and some brick and pottery, but hundreds of years after the Armada and teh Napoleonic threat the same place was the site of an airfield used by troops during the Second World War – a place through history that has had a role in the defence of the nation.

The badge of the Royal Observer Corps (shown above) still features an Elizabethan beacon lighter.

©2010 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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Down and Out in Georgian Oxfordshire

It's been a busy week of blogging here at Cornick Central to celebrate the launch of Whisper of Scandal. Thank you to everyone who has sent me such lovely messages about the book and the new series! I appreciate it very much!

Today it's October – I'd like to wish everyone a very happy month. Judging by the wild, wet and windy weather outside, autumn really has arrived in the British Isles. Here's a misty autumnal picture of Ashdown House to welcome in the new month. I'm working at Ashdown tomorrow. Hope I see the deer!

Over on the SOS Aloha blog, Kim in Hawaii is hosting three of my favourite Aussie historical romance authors: Anne Gracie, Anna Campbell and Christine Wells! How I wish I were in Hawaii right now!

I'm blogging at Word Wenches today on what it was like to be poor in the Georgian countryside. Here is a taster of the post:

"Nicola here, talking today about the experience of being poor in rural Georgian society. In our books we often read and write about the other end of the scale, the aristocracy, the wealth and the glamour. The poor existed right alongside but in another world entirely." Read on here…

Have a great weekend!

©2010 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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The Arctic Experience!

Today is my final blog post on the subject of the Arctic background to Whisper of Scandal and I am a guest over at the Romantic Times daily blog, where I am talking about those dashing and heroic sailors who made the voyages of discovery to the Far North at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

A number of people have asked me about my research for Whisper of Scandal. The whole idea came to me as a result of a cruise I did to Spitsbergen, north of Norway. Our photos are here. On that voyage I was able to experience for myself  the extraordinary cold, the dangers of the sea ice – and of polar bears – and visit so many fascinating historical sites. In terms of background reading, though, there were many texts that gave the flavour of the Arctic. There was "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano" an extraordinary man who was born in what is now Nigeria, was sold into slavery and as slave to a Navy captain travelled on an Arctic Expedition in the late 18th century.  There was also the journal of Captain Constatine Phipps who sailed in 1773 to find the NE Passage. Various books about lady travellers gave the female perspective on journeys far from the beaten track. My main research book was "Safe Return Doubtful: Heroic Age of Polar Exploration" by John Maxtone-Graham, which was fascinating and invaluable. Also giving an amazing insight was "Woman in the Polar Night" an extraordinary book by Christine Ritter.

I have pages and pages of background notes on the Arctic expeditions and on the history of the Island of Spitsbergen, from the first Pomor trappers, who arrived before 1425, to the whaling of the 17th century onwards. The Starostin family from Novgorod were the most famous Russian Pomors to explore Spitsbergen. Ivan Starostin was said to have lived in Grumant (the Russian name for Spitsbergen) for 39 years and died in 1829. The trappers spent their time collecting eiderdown as well as hunting bears, foxes, reindeer, seals and whales and walruses. They sold the fur in Norway. 

The Pomors built hunting stations of quite some size, small settlements with one main building, a forge, storage buildings, a sauna etc. Up to 20 people may have wintered there together, and games such as chess boards have been found in the ruins.  Remains of hunting stations can be seen at the coast in most parts of Spitsbergen. Large, wooden orthodox crosses were commonly put up for religious purposes and to make orientation easier, but most of those fell victim to the weather and to later visitors in need of firewood. There are some remains of orthodox crosses lying on the ground, but standing original crosses are very rare and we saw only one. A characteristic of Pomor settlements are the remains of bricks which were used to build the oven. Norwegian trappers, in contrast, brought metal ovens with them and tended to to build only one small hut for shelter rather than a group settlement.

 It was known from the 17th century that there were coal deposits on Spitsbergen but the climate made mining very difficult. In the late 19th century Ernest Mansfield's company the Northern Exploration Company (NEC) opened a marble mine on Blomstrandhalvøya. The quality of the marble was very fine, said to rival that of Italian Carrera marble, but sadly just as in my story, the effect of the permafrost on it was fatal.

I took one liberty with the history of Spitsbergen in writing Whisper of Scandal. There never was a monastery on the island and I modelled my monastery at Bellsund on the Solovetsky Monastery on the White Sea in Russia. There is a picture at the top of the page. A stunningly beautiful place!

©2010 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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Word Wench Interview and August Contest Winner!

Today on the Word Wenches blog Jo Beverley, doyenne of historical romance authors, is interviewing me about the Arctic background to Whisper of Scandal. Here is a taster:

"Nicola, Whisper of Scandal is a lovely book, but also unusual. The phrase "Joanna and Alex travel to the Arctic" certainly isn't run-of-the-mill Regency. I read on your web site that you like to seek unusual settings for your books. Why Arctic Exploration? How did that come to the front of your creative mind…"

Please do come on over to the Wenches and join in the chat!

On a different note, I would like to say a huge "thank you" to everyone who entered my August website contest and subscribed to my newsletter. It's been really exciting for me to have such a beautiful new website and to share the news of my new series with everyone, as well as moving my history blog over to this site too. Thank you all very much for giving me so much encouragement and support in my writing!

The winner of the August website contest was Rachelle, who has won a copy of The Confessions of a Duchess and The Earl's Prize. Congratulations, Rachelle! There is now a new contest up to win not only a couple of my backlist books but also books by the fabulous Miranda Neville and award-winning author Anne Gracie!

©2010 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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Publication Day!

I'm very excited! Today, Tuesday 28th September, is the launch of my new trilogy, The Scandalous Women of the Ton, with the publication of the first book in the series, Whisper of Scandal. I've had a ball writing the books and I really hope you enjoy them. Let me know what you think! And please let me know if you sight the books in the shops - if you can email me a picture that's even more fun and I'll put it up on the blog!

Now to contests. First a big thank you to everyone who entered the most recent Weekend Goody Giveaway and shared with me the sport for which you would like to be a patron. Monty the dog, even-pawed as ever, appreciated the offers of treats very much but he is completely incorruptible. He chose HELEN as the winner. Congratulations, Helen! A copy of Whisper of Scandal and One Wicked Sin will be winging its way to you.

To celebrate the launch of Whisper of Scandal here's another fun contest. I'm offering a copy of Whisper of Scandal plus a $20 (or equivalent) Amazon Gift Card to the person who sends me the most imaginative photo of themselves with a copy of Whisper of Scandal. Please be as creative as you like in terms of where you set your picture – photos taken in the Arctic are not compulsory! The closing date for this contest is 8th October and it will be judged by a panel of readers, not by Monty this time! Again, the best pics will go up on the blog. Thank you all for your emails, comments and photos – and for celebrating Launch Day with me!

©2010 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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Have You Seen this Man?

Yes, I'm on the subject of highwaymen again (not that I have an obsession or anything) because York Castle Museum has opened up its condemned cell to visitors. It was here that the famous highwayman Dick Turpin spent his last night before being executed on the Knavesmire (and what a great evocative name that is!) on 7th April 1739 for horse stealing. The cell itself looks pretty spacious and comfortable to me. If you click on the link above and have a look at the "cellcam" you will see there ...

Weekend Goody Giveaway 3!

It's four days until the publication of Whisper of Scandal and this is the final goody giveaway before the launch so I have made this an extra special nice one (at least I hope you think so!) Yesterday I received copies of One Wicked Sin, book 2 in the Scandalous Women of the Ton series. So today's prize is a copy of Whisper of Scandal and One Wicked Sin!

Joanna, heroine of Whisper of Scandal, is a Lady of the Fancy, a patron of the Regency boxing fraternity (even though she secretly...

Regency Celebrity!

Today I am blogging about Regency celebrity over at The Regency World of Lesley Anne McLeod. Come and join me to chat about your favourite Regency celebrities and their exploits! Here is a taster from the blog piece:

"There is a tendency to see celebrity as a modern phenomenon, a product of the age of mass media but the concept of being lionised or celebrated was widely understood as far back as Greek or Roman times when gladiators, for example, were the heroes of the sporting arena. In the...