Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 entries.
This week, my lovely writer friend, Melanie Rose, and I visited Loseley Park in Surrey. It was used in the BBC 4-part adaptation of Emma where it played Mr Knightley’s home, Donwell Abbey, and it also had a starring role in the recent Andrew Davies adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. So it was very much a Jane Austen-themed day!
It has one of the most beautiful and romantic gardens I’ve ever seen. Here I am cuddling up to a Gertrude Jekyll rose bush!
But Loseley wasn’t the only film set I visited this week. On an evening walk with Molly, Roy and I managed to walk right through a film set! Quite close to us is a beautiful eighteenth-century farmhouse by a canal and it’s very popular as a film location – Bridget Jones’s Diary, 28 Weeks Later, and The Children of Men have all been filmed here, and we spotted David Jason there this week - filming The Royal Bodyguard which is to be shown on TV at Christmas.
As if this wasn’t enough excitement, I then visited the lovely Ashdown House where my writer friend, Nicola Cornick, gives guided tours when she isn’t writing her wonderful historical novels. Here we are, windswept on the roof! The views over the parkland are stunning.
Don’t forget, this is the last week you can buy my three fantasy rom coms on Kindle for just 86p each. And it’s also your last chance to enter my competition to win a signed copy of The Perfect Hero and a Jane Austen goodie bag!
Continue reading Film sets galore! »
I adore old houses especially big, old country houses and I’ve set quite a few of my books in them too. So, this week, on a perfect summer’s day, I met up with fellow author, Melanie Rose, and visited Hatchlands Park which lies deep in the Surrey countryside – just a stone’s throw away from Emma Woodhouse’s Box Hill.
Hatchlands has the most amazing collection of keyboard instruments and we saw one that had once belonged to Marie Antoinette. We marvelled at the collection before walking across the parkland and having tea and cake in the stable courtyard. This part of the estate reminded me of my book, A Weekend with Mr Darcy, and my hero Dan Harcourt who lives in a room below a clock tower.
It was a lovely summer’s day and it thoroughly recharged the batteries and I now have all sorts of ideas for the latest country house in a new novel of mine …
Continue reading A perfect English summer’s day »
Last night, I had the great pleasure of attending the HarperCollins Summer Party at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The party was in the courtyard which made a lovely venue with its fountains and fabulous architecture.
There were even musicians out in the water!
And the dessert display was just too tempting for words. Here I am with author and pal, Giselle Green, making sure we’re first in line for the strawberries and cream!
I also had the pleasure of saying hello to TV historian, Dan Snow, whose recent programme, Little Ships, was so moving.
And it was great to meet some fellow authors and chat to the brilliant Avon team at HarperCollins. Here’s my fabulous editor, Kate, with the lovely author, Melanie Rose.
My husband and I also managed to have a very quick trip to Lyme Regis this week where I was tempted by one of my favourite shops – Pop Goes the Weasel – and bought a delcious sun hat the colour of a strawberry milkshake. Unfortunately, Molly’s also taken a shine to it but I don’t mind sharing.
But I’m sorry to report that I was a victim of crime in Lyme! I was walking along Marine Parade enjoying a raspberry pavlova ice-cream when a seagull swooped down from the heavens and mugged me! We’re forwarding the following photo to Crimestoppers…
… and would like to warn fellow ice-cream eaters to beware!
Continue reading Parties, pink hats and rapsberry pavlovas! »