Category: Writing

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The London of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell. The City of Wolf Hall Virtual Walk

Sunday 29th February 2021

The Walk creates a portrait of London in the early 16th Century. It has a particular emphasis on the life and times of Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More who feature in Wolf Hall, the novel by Hilary Mantel.

Listen to the Tour Podcast (6 min 55)

The Virtual Tour will start with a boat tour from Hampton Court, via Chelsea to the City, and then a Walk around the City.

More and Cromwell had much in common, both lawyers, commoners, who rose to be Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII and they both ended their career on the block at Tower Hill. But they found themselves on the other side of the gulf that suddenly opened with the religious ferment that accompanied Henry’s obsession with Anne Bolyen.

The Walk will include visits to the sites of More’s and Cromwell’s town houses and then walk through the market streets of Tudor London, to Cheapside and the Guildhall, St Pauls and outside the Walls to Smithfield where most of the religious executions took place. We visit Charter House where More took a break from the stress of public office, and whose Prior, Cromwell had hanged, drawn and quartered. We exit via the plaque pits, and finish off with a walk around the City Walls until we come to Tower Hill where both men ended their lives on the scaffold.

Saint or Sinner? What better place to ponder that question that the streets of Wolf Hall London?

To buy Tickets click here:

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Tudor words for sex

Just some:

 

bob clip dance hornpipe leather pleasure roust sport stroke till trade trick bed foin foutre frig frisk have jape juggle jumble leap niggle nock occupy plough rifle seal sport swive thrum thump tick-tack till towze tread tumble twang vault wap.

source:

https://www.salon.com/2014/10/05/tickle_gizzard_and_the_pleasure_pivot_a_history_of_sex_slang_and_the_coolest_ancient_dirty_words/

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Jack London – a writer’s mantra

I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.

said Jack London.

I would rather be earth than dust!

I would rather my spark should kindle a  bright home fire than it should be stifled by dry-rot

I would rather be a  vibrant planet every inch of me nurturing of life, than a superb meteor

The function of man is to create not to exist

I will live my life to prolong my creative days

I shall use my time

I responded.

 

 

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Performance at Spineless Authors Night

I read Chapter 11 of my first novel at the Clapton Hart ‘Spineless’ Authors’ Night.
It was a bit of a multi-media performance as music is an integral part of the work.   I was quite nervous as on the previous outing at Spineless I knew the first chapters were funny and dramatic.
This one not so sure about as it depends on farce, and didn’t know if others would find it funny or just unbelievable..
 ​Chapter 11 – ‘Getting it straight in Notting Hill Gate’
Play list on Spotify called ‘Notting Hill’
It got  a few laughs,  generous applause and people were kind enough to say they thought it was good.  One fellow author said the LSD scene was very realistic which he thought was difficult to do.
A member of one of the writers groups I attend was chatting with me afterwards when another person came up to say how good he thought it was.  The group member said something to the effect that  ‘yes we have heard the development of the novel over the years, and let me tell you there have been some longueurs’
longueurs
  1. a tedious passage in a book, piece of music,