Penelope Mortimer

She was a novelist and journalist, who wrote several autobiographical works, and a controversial biography of the queen Mother. She suffered from depression and mental health problems at times. She was married twice, and her second husband was John Mortimer, barrister and writer who created Rumpole of the Bailey. She had several children, but John was a very unfaithful husband and their marriage ended in divorce. In later life, she went to the USA to teach creative writing and took up gardening. One of her novels is Daddy's gone A Hunting... which is about a married, middle class woman, Ruth whose husband is selfish and unkind and unfaithful. Ruth has a breakdown, but she manages to help her 18 year old daughter, Angela, to end a pregnancy by her dull and selfish boyfriend... this was before abortion was legalised...... She thinks of leaving her husband but stays.... It is a rather bleak book.....with a very jaundiced view of men....

Harriet Martineau

Harriet was a Unitarian, a social activist.. and writer. She was born to a family of Unitarians who were well to do and used their position to do good. She supported herself as a writer, and bought a property in the North where she was visited by Charlotte Bronte who was a friend for a time, Charlotte noted that the local gentry did not like her because of her radical views, but the poor admired her. However, she was an atheist as well which shocked the religous Charlotte. She visited America, where she was critical of slavery. She and Charlotte had a dispute over her disliking Charlotte's novel Villette.

Rough Music, story on Amazon

This is a story set in the 1970s about a country rock band in the US. The 2 lead singers are good friends, and both of them have difficulties in their marriages.. due to long tours and being away from home. They also want to do good music, and not simply try to make money but their manager pushes them to be more commercial. The story is available on Amazon, by Nadine Sutton

Beds and Blue Jeans, a story by Nadine Sutton

Beds and Blue Jeans is a story, novella length about a young bar singer in Nashville in the 2010s.. who has found himself being pursued by a lot of lady fans. He has a girlfriend who has just had his baby, but the relationship with Patty isn't going too well. Sam lets himself be caught by various ladies but can he learn to appreciate Patty and settle down with her and their baby. It is available on Amazon.

Margot De Valois

Margot's life was overshadowed by the wars of religion in France. Her marriage to Henri de Bourbon was not happy; the couple were not compatible and Henri was repeatedly unfaithful. She lived apart from him for much of their married life, and occupied herself with holding court among intellectuals. She was also involved in gathering information and intriguing, in politics. She took lovers - but its not clear how many there were. She seems to have been infertile, and did not produce any children by her husband or any lover. Eventually, Henri became king after the deaths of Catherine's sons, Charles and Henry III. He became a Catholic. He sought an annulment of the marriage so that he could marry a fertile wife. Margot cooperated and they were set free of their difficult marriage. Margot got on well with Marie de Medici, his new queen. She often came to court and was friendly with Henri... and grew to love his children by his second marriage. She became more devout and helped the poor and died at the age of 61. She was famous for writing her autobiography......

Marguerite de Valois (1553-1615)

Im reading a biography of Marguerite, who was the daughter of Catherine de Medici and the wife of Henry IV of France. She was famous for her learning and her love affairs. I hope to blog about this later. She was known as Margot and was the youngest daughter of Catherine de Meidici and Henri II of France. She was a devout Catholic and quarrelled with her brother Henri III who tried to interest her in the new Huguenot Protestant faith. Her father was killed in a tournament when she was a child and when his eldest son, Francis II died too at a very young age, Catherine became Regent for her son Charles IX who was very young and who had a violent temper. Catherine married off her daughters Elisabeth to the King of Spain and Claude to a member of the Lorraine family. She then tried to keep the peace between the Huguenots and Catholics by marrying Margot to Henri de Bourbon, whose family were the next heirs after the De Valois family. He was the leader of the Huguenots and was reluctant to marry Margot, but did it for the sake of peace. Margot did not like him, and she was strongly Catholic and she was all but forced to the altar. Margot's marriage was the occasion of the massacre of Huguenots by the Catholic faction. Margot, in spite of her own religious faith and her dislike of Henri, managed to save him and other Protestant gentlemen when the massacre happened.

D Day

Today is the 80th anniversary of D Day, the massive invasion of Occupied Europe.... Eisenhower expected higher casualties, but they were still tragically high.

Grantchester novels by James Runcie

These are some light detective novels, set in the 1950s, about a detective clergyman, Sidney Chambers who is an Anglican priest who works in Grantchester, near Cambridge. He gets involved in detection and the novels are unusual in that the cases are quite short, and there are several in one book. James Runcie is the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and knows about clerical and academic life. Sidney solves murders and arson, and all sorts of crimes.

Rough Music, by Nadine Sutton

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Music-Nadine-Sutton-ebook/dp/B01AEQS0G0/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=rough+music+nadine+sutton&qid=1627468036&sr=8-1 Rough Music is a novella about a country rock band, set in the late 1970s. It is more about their lifestyle than a romance, and does not have a traditional happy ending.