Childhood

This is one of my blog posts to be filed under 'other places'.
I think the place where you spend your first ten years is more firmly etched in your mind than anywhere you may subsequently live. This is certainly true in my case.

I had the good fortune to grow up in a particularly magical place  - Thorndon Park in Essex in England - where we lived in what had once been a gamekeeper's cottage on a grand estate. Our garden opened directly on the huge acreage that had been the deer park and grounds laid out by Capability Brown for Lord Petre in the 18th century.  Back in the 1950's we children were allowed to wander in the woods in search of adventure.

Deep in the woods was the neglected little Roman Catholic chapel where the Lords Petre and their servants were buried. I only ever went inside once with my mother. A woman was scrubbing the black and white flagstone floor and multicolored lights from the stained glass windows speckled her back. An image that has remained with me for ever. I only discovered recently that the Chantry Chapel was designed by a friend of Pugin's (Pugin designed the Houses of Parliament!) 

Anyway, these woods and Thorndon Hall

are the setting for Jane in Winter a children's book I wrote some years ago. Though aimed at readers between the ages of about eight and twelve it's also a memoir of childhood.

For the fantastical parts of the story - the domain of the evil Queen Ida deep under the lake - I used my memories of the splendid Palais Gharnata in  Marrakesh, Morocco -

a most amazingly decorated place.

Jane in Winter is about autumn in England in the 1950's - and family and food and the days leading up to Christmas. I've recently re-edited it to remove errors. It's available both for Kindle (only $2.99) and as a paperback. I think you'll enjoy it!

A view of Thornton Hall - Myrtle Hall in the book - from the Brentwood side.

So if you need a little light nostalgic reading or a present for a young reader...

For my other books go here.

Happy reading!

Jane in Winter

When we lived in Morocco, and the days were growing shorter, I started thinking about my childhood in England. 

In those days I loved reading and wished real life was as exciting as what happened in books.

So I started writing a story which combines elements of both what really happened and what should have done. 

My heroine, ignored by her brother, manages to have an adventure on her own and travels to a mysterious kingdom deep under a lake.

In writing the book, I drew on elements of all kinds of classic stories: Grimm's Fairy Tales, Beowulf (all bad creatures have lairs under water!), folklore: the four elements -- earth, air fire and water and so on. 

Several young people in Morocco, among them Leonora Brebner, Nikole Cairns and Maria Thornhill, were my first readers. Their enthusiastic reception  pleased me enormously.

Then I had to make a cover.

I took out the water colors my daughter gave me, and old photos and prints. 

Thorndon Hall in the print is Myrtle Hall in the book.

The little cottage in the photo is the house I grew up in. 

I think the story is best suited to  8-12 year old readers, but grownups will enjoy the descriptions of food and life in the days before video games and cell phones. 

I have just finished writing Jane's next adventure called Jane in Spring. This will be available soon.

JANE IN WINTER is available from Lulu.com.

PREVIEW THE BOOK

You can read the first ten pages of the book to see if you like it!

The preview is also here (http://www.lulu.com/browse/preview/php?fCID=5179335)

I love feedback so please e-mail me at elizabethwix@hotmail.com if you have any comments or suggestions.

Essex

In England, a sentimental journey to the village where I grew up in Essex. Sadly, Essex has a reputation a bit like New Jersey in the US, when in fact it is rather wonderful.
We lived in a gamekeeper's cottage on a huge estate and used to play in the woods constantly.
This park is the setting for a children's story, Jane in Winter, that I've just finished.
This is a scary blasted oak........



......and a magical tree stump.



When I was a child, Thorndon Hall was derelict and the fountain did not play. Once the center part of the hall went up in flames at night. Very dramatic.



Flowers in St.Nicholas Churchyard in Ingrave............



.........and more of the churchyard where I spent many happy hours reading the gravestones.......



The pond in Herongate where we used to feed the ducks. The Friary in the background.



And Mrs.Dickerson's cottage next to the Boar's Head. We used to call Mrs. Dickerson "The Old Lady with no stockings" - but, obviously, never to her face. It used to be rather organic looking . Now it has been 'improved'.



The requisite number of ducks which now seem to have a diet of potato crisps - and continue to thrive.



In the distance, across the flat Essex countryside, Heron Hall, built long ago by the Tyrell family, where my friend Caroline lived.
The house is partially surrounded by a moat where who knows what lurked......