Nicola Cornick's Blog, page 47

Fans!

This weekend I visited a fabulous little antiquarian bookshop, Evergreen Livres, in the historic market town of Stow on the Wold. It's the sort of bookshop I can easily go mad in and spend a fortune on out of print historical reference books. It has a great stock of unusual and reasonably priced books, the owners are very friendly and they have a cute dog - all recommendations as far as I'm concerned.

One of the books I picked up was about fans. I have been aware of the language of fans for...

Recipe of the Week!

Kedgeree


This recipe originated in India as khichri, a combination of rice, lentils and spices, and was a popular breakfast dish. As early as 1845 Eliza Acton was recommending the anglicised kedgeree in her book Modern Cookery for Private Families, suggesting serving it with fish such as haddock, brill, salmon or sole. It became a feature of Victorian and Edwardian breakfasts in Britain and no sideboard was complete without a large dish of kedgeree to start the day.

Ingredients:

9oz smoked...

Historic Sex Toys in the News!

Ok folks, I haven't posted a picture to go with this for reasons of delicacy. At least I've posted a picture of David Tennant as Casanova just for fun. Anyway, if you are of a nervous disposition or feeling particularly delicate this Monday morning my advice would be DON'T CLICK ON THIS LINK http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/8589766.stm

The story is that an anonoymous bidder has paid £3,600 for a couple of "wooden items" as the BBC politely describes them, at auction. The sex toys...

Swimming in the Stanway Fountain

As a result of the current contest on my website, I've had a number of enquiries from readers about the fountain that features in my book, Unmasked. What did it look like, how deep was it and is it really possible to swim in a fountain? Karen B referenced the wonderful water gardens at Alnwick Castle (pictured) and asked me if that was my inspiration. It wasn't, but now that I've seen them I am very keen to re-visit Alnwick. It looks wonderful.


The inspiration for the fountain in Unmasked

Lighthouses!

Today I felt like writing about lighthouses. Why? Maybe it's the stormy weather. The fact is I live about as far away from the coast as it's possible to be in the UK, almost exactly in the centre of the country, and every so often I get a hankering for the sea.
There's something about lighthouses that is part of the British consciousness. We're an island race and for thousands of years we were reliant on trade at sea and lived in fear of death by shipwreck. Lighthouses are inspirational...

Mystery Portraits!

This is one of the most imaginative and fascinating ideas I've heard for a while. The National Portrait Gallery in London and the National Trust's Montacute House are jointly mounting a new display of thirteen portraits where the identity of the sitter is lost, mistaken or uncertain. All the pictures date from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and are probably of courtiers, merchants, musicians and others who wished to be immortalised through art but whose identity is now forgotten.

The Film of the Book - Can it ever be as good?

You wait fifty six years for a film and then two come along at the same time. What are the chances? Rosemary Sutcliff's book The Eagle of the Ninth has been an all time favourite of mine since I read it at school (which wasn't quite 56 years ago - that was when it was first published) and when I heard it was going to be turned into a film I was ecstatic. For me that story has everything: a spooky historical mystery at its heart - the disappearance of a Roman legion north of Hadrian's Wall ...

Cheese Rolling and Flaming Torches

The ancient pastime of cheese rolling was in the headlines this weekend when the annual cheese rolling contest at Cooper's Hill in Gloucestershire was cancelled because of concerns over the sizes of the crowd turning out to see the event. It was refreshing that no one was concerned about potential injury to the participants (or the cheeses) and that the problem simply related to issues of traffic and crowd control.

The Cooper's Hill cheese rolling dates back at least 200 years. The rules are...

(Vanished) House of the Week!

Yes, that's it. Eight pairs of elaborate gate piers and part of a walled garden are all that is left of the First Earl of Craven's splendid house at Hamstead Marshall in Berkshire, yet despite that the site is one of the most fascinating and atmospheric places to visit, perhaps because you can let your imagination run riot. There are pieces of roof slates, floor tiles and window glass still lying in the fields as testament to the magnificence of the house and you can walk across the whole...

Pub Names!

Here are some of my favourite British pub names that celebrate the more lawless elements of our society!

The Wicked Lady - A pub in No Man's Land, Hertfordshire. named in honour of Lady Kathleen Ferrers, 1634 - 59, who became a highwaywoman at the age of 18. She was shot dead seven years later as she attempted to rob customers leaving the Park Inn. Her story was made into a film in 1945 starring Margaret Lockwood. Dick Turpin also has pubs named after him. Of similar ilk is The Highwayman in...