Welcome to my blog REDOUBTABLE EDWARDIANS featuring articles about the colorful eccentrics who populated the era of my books. I hope you will find them as fascinating as I do!
I am delighted to share Chateau Impney as the house on the cover for Lady Montfort and Edith Jackson’s fourth adventure: Death of an Unsung Hero, and the story of how I came to choose it as a stand in for the fictitious Haversham Hall. I had absolutely no interest in the history of Chateau Impney… Read the full article >>
April 29, 1879 – March 8, 1961 There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn’t give a damn what goes on in between. —Sir Thomas Beecham Beecham’s grandfather, also Thomas Beecham, was the rich industrialist who owned Beecham’s Powders, a laxative and cure-all for headache and… Read the full article >>
At the name of Melba… crowned heads would nod respectful acknowledgment, noble lords and ladies would open their doors, newspaper editors would clear space for headlines, theatre managers would turn pale, and the house would be full. Her voice was pure and pitch perfect she never slid up to her High C but… Read the full article >>
Constance Gladys, Marchioness of Ripon was six feet tall and considered to be a stunner; she was so beautiful that even the most glamorous in her company looked like they needed ‘a touch of the sponge and the duster,’ according to the writer E.F. Benson. Lady Ripon was a close friend of Oscar Wilde, who… Read the full article >>
It was during the frenzy of the Coronation year of George V in 1911 that brought Nijinsky, star of the Ballet Russe, before the British public.