Romantic Novelists' Association Blog: Interview with Theresa Le Flem

Romantic Novelists' Association Blog: Interview with Theresa Le Flem: Theresa Le Flem inherited the creative gene. Studying Art at college, her CV includes studio-potter, hairdresser, factory-worker, sales-as...  Great interview.  What a fascinating life Theresa LeFlem has had. 

Madalyn Morgan's Fiction Blog: Signed copies of Foxden Acres at, Oh Lovely, Lutte...

Madalyn Morgan's Fiction Blog: Signed copies of Foxden Acres at, Oh Lovely, Lutte...: As a local author I was delighted when Amy MacBean Dennis, owner of Oh Lovely ...  in Lutterworth, said she would stock Foxden Acres in h...

Foxden Acres @ The BookStop Cafe, Lincoln

The Grand Opening of the fabulous, BookStop Café in Lincoln, May 4, 2013 

 

Joff and Becky cutting the ribbon - 10am

 

Left: Outside the café with authors, June Kearns, Madalyn Morgan and Nicky Wells. 

Inside author, Lizzie Lamb joined us.



Lincoln is a beautiful city, with a Cathedral, Castle, craft market, and of course the fabulous  BookStop Café.  I was welcomed into the city by the King and Queen, and Robin Hood. 

 

The BookStop Café is only a stones throw down the cobbled lane behind Robin Hood.  Convenient for all the car parks and the sights.

 

By 11am The BookStop Café was buzzing

 

                                                                                                                                 

 

 

Above left: The Jazz Beats.   Right: Actor and writer, Paul Redfern, Madalyn Morgan & friend James

 

 

 

 

 Looking at Foxden Acres on the bookshelf of, The BookStop Café.  More about The BookStop Café and Foxden Acres later on http://madalynmorgansfiction.blogspot.co.uk/  x

 

 

 

 

And later I relaxed with Joff Gainey's novel, Sleeping On A Cloud.

 

   Joff Gainey https://www.facebook.com/BookStopCafe  

More wonderful books from great Authors   

On sale  @BookStopCafe
Steep Hill Lincoln

 

The Madalyn Morgan Show. Wednesday April 24th - Podcast

Madalyn Morgan on Raidersbroadcast.com

 

 

 

 

Listen to The Madalyn Morgan Show -

Wednesday April 24th - on Raiders Two. 

Click on the link below.

 

http://newsraid.podomatic.com/entry/2013-04-25T20_52_51-07_00

 

Podcast Producer Jan K

The BookStop Cafe. Enjoy a lovely cup of tea or coffee, and relax with a book. If you like what you read, you can buy it.

"Where you can enjoy lovely cup of Tea or Coffee and read a good book, from our shelves, in comfortable surroundings."

Joff Gainey, the proprietor said, "Our aim is to provide our customers with a relaxed atmosphere in which to read and enjoy the books available and to support local and Indie Authors.

The BookSop Café is situated on Steephill in Lincoln, beneath Imperial Teas. 

To begin with we shall be open every Saturday and Sunday 10am - 4pm.  We very much look forward to meeting old and new friends there.

We are having a real live Jazz Duo playing on the open day... 4th MAY... called Jazz Beats... they are fantastic."
 

What a unique idea.  A fabulous idea for anyone who wants to relax with a cup of fresh coffee, or tea, and read a book.  And, this amazing café is supporting authors by having a 'café book shelf' where customers can take a book, read it while relaxing with their drink, and if they like what they're reading they can buy the book.  BookStop Café will sell good condition second hand books, BUT more importantly, Authors books. The customers would be able to sit, drink and read a book - try before they buy. 

I'm proud to say, three signed copies of Foxden Acres, with bookmarks and cards, are in the BookStop Café already.  

 

What a spectacular bookcase

Foxden Acres is right in the middle of it.

Good luck Joff. 
See you at the opening.  May 4th at the



 

Inside the BookStop Café  
 
 *


A little piece of history about the building in which BookStop Cafe is situated.

Norman House on Steep Hill, Lincoln in England is a historic building and an example of Norman domestic arthitecture.  The building is at 46-47 Steep Hill and 7 Christs Hospital Terrace. The architectural evidence suggests a date 1170-80.  The building was known for many years as "Aaron the Jew's House", and appears as such in many references, as it is believed to have been the residence of Aaron of Lincoln (d.1186), then the greatest Jewish financier of England.  The building has been a shop for many years, and currently home to a tea importers.

 

The BookStop Café is through the black doors.



Smart Entrance

*
And Parking?

There are several carparks in the Bailgate area. The nearest is in the corner of Castle Square. You can get to it by driving up Drury Lane. The carpark is about 100yds from the Cafe. :)


 
 
 
 

Good Friday with The Rhythm Riders at the Shambles, Lutterworth

Good Friday - The Rhythm Riders At the Shambles, Lutterworth 

 

Paul guitar, Deano sax, Matt singer, Garf on drums, Mike bass guitar
The Rhythm Riders at the Shambles in Lutterworth on Good Friday, March 29, 2013. They played from 9 till midnight to a packed house.  

                    Celebrating the blonde girl's birthday 

I asked the birthday girl if I could take a photograph of her shoes.  She was so sweet and said I could put it on my blog.  The shoes were amazing.

The heals...  Well there were no heels.  If there had been they would have been about 6 inches high. 

Her shoes were amazing.  She could not only walk in them, she could dance in them too.  A lovely girl.


Everyone dance and sang, applauded and cheered.  
    
 Jingle and his wife Bell, taking a break from dancing

Midnight came and midnight went.  There were so many calls for more -
The Rhythm Riders played on.                  

 

Foxden Acres

                                     Foxden Acres on Amazon Kindle


 

What A Find, A King! Richard III of England

King Richard III of England

The Last of the Plantagenet Monarchs

by Madalyn Morgan

Click the link below to read an article about King Richard III
 http://www.madalynmorgan.com/2013 Spring Edition - Richard III Extract.pdf

Foxden Acres is on the bookshelf in very good company.

Foxden Acres is on the bookshelf in good writerly company.

 

 

On the bookcase with -

Debbie Viggiano, Jane Jackson, Leseley Horton, Rebecca Emin, Jane Wenham-Jones, Peter Jones, Penny Grubb, Amos Carr, Sue Moorcroft, Sylvia Broady, Elizabeth Ducie and Theresa Le Flem. 

Virtual Launch Party Saturday February 16th

Virtual launch party, Foxden Acres, Saturday February 16, 10am -10pm
It's less than a week until the launch of Foxden Acres.  

My first novel, Foxden Acres, will be available through Amazon Kindle and book on Saturday February 16. (The paperback can be bought direct from lulu.com if Amazon hasn't uploaded then.)

 On the day Foxden Acres goes live, I hope my fabulous friends will drop in to say hello. 

Invitations for the virtual launch party will go out nearer to the time.     

For more information, go to:   For the launch Party click here 

Or go directly to the novel on Amazon:  Foxden Acres on Amazon Kindle

 

I have been invited to give a talk to the local WI on February 14th and I am determined to have a book in my hand on that night.  I also hope to be dressed as a land girl, in khaki dungarees, green pullover and boots.  Don't laugh.  I know land girls were young, but I'm going to do it anyway, because it'll be fun.

 

Foxden Acres has been uploaded to Kindle and lulu books, by the wonderful Rebecca Emin today, Feb 8th. No books - Kindle or paperback - yet. The author's copy has been ordered so, after I've given it a final proofread, Foxden Acres will go live. We're still on track for next Saturday. I can't believe it? After all these years, Foxden Acres will soon be in the public domain. I'm so happy. My face is aching from smiling.

 

 xxx 

 

 

 

I feel an article about King Richard III coming on

I feel an article about King Richard III coming on.  It was confirmed today (Feb 5th) that the remains found under a car park in the city of Leicester are those of Richard III who was killed at the Battle of Bosworth. Leicester is 12 miles away from my home town of Lutterworth, so it's a must.

Philippa Langley, originator of the 'Looking For Richard III' project, and the facial reconstruction of Richard III, unveiled to the media at the Society of Antiquaries, London, Tuesday February 5th.  (Gareth Fuller, Associated Press)

 The discovery of the long lost British monarch found under a parking lot in Leicester, U.K. has stimulated the imaginations of CBCNews.ca readers. 

King Richard III was identified yesterday through modern DNA testing with the help of a Canadian carpenter - a 17th great-grand-nephew of the king's older sister.

Not only have scientists excavated and identified his bones, but they have also given the modern world a first glimpse of his face in a life-sized plastic model.

How To Do Everything And Be Happy, by Peter Jones

How To Do Everything and Be Happy

by Peter Jones in WH Smith, Balham

 

In London, on the way to the studio to do my radio show, I popped into WH Smith for a browse.  And wow!  Peter's book, How To Do Everything And Be Happy, was on the shelf in front of me.  That's definitely one for the album.  

Reviews of the Books I've read

 

Click on the link below

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/cdp/member-reviews/ATKGZNQNQ5JFO/ref=cm_cr_yc_cdp?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview

Happy New Year

And a happy, healthy, prosperous 2013

RAIDERS ROCKED - CHRISTMAS PARTY AND AWARDS 2012

Happy Christmas to raidersbroadcast.com     

    RAIDERS CHRISTMAS PARTY AND AWARDS 2012 

 
My last show of 2012 was on December 19^th.  Apart from being packed with Christmas tracks, I played my favourite music and thanked my listeners for supporting me over the year.  Tony Williams, Producer of Rhythm 365, and some of his DJs came into my show to say hi, and Hannah Woolley - Controller of Raiders One, took over at 8 o’clock. 

Celebrating at The Raiders Chirstmas Party 

The Raiders Christmas Bash was held at The Pizza Express, in Balham.  Twenty of us, including presenters from the 80s and 90s gathered to make the Christmas Party and Awards a very special occasion.  As well as presenters, there were News Raid contributors, Labour and Lib Dem councillors, studio technicians, Raiders mentor Arthur Smith and several ‘friends’ of Raiders.  We sat down together to celebrate almost thirty years of Raiders FM, and raidersbroadcast.com. 

Jan Cooper with his award

  Dom Chambers & Mark Oxley

After a super meal, and more wine than was decent to quaff, Dom Chambers of Summer Valley FM, who was controller of Raiders Two in the nineties and noughties.  And who I presented band profiles for on The Rock Jukebox.  Dom presented The Best Live Show to Mark Oxley, for his Rock Metal and Mad humour show.  Dom also awarded, Jan Cooper an ward for his brilliant Podcast Shows, @ www.dimension7.podomatic.com     

The most prestigeous award, The Lifetime Achievement Award, went to one of the original Presenters of Raiders FM from the 1980s, and Raiders Two Controller Claire Mansfield.   

Claire Mansfield with Raidersbroadcast Producer Mike Summers
 

Above left: Madalyn Morgan, Arthur Smith and Claire Mansfield.  Right: The lovely Susan John Richards was given an award for her contribution to News Raid, Raiders news and political arm.

  

Feel the love from raidersbroadcast.com

 

Thank you Mike for a wonderful year at raidersbroadcast.com and a fabulous Christmas party

Happy Christmas, Glædelig jul, हैप्पी क्रिसमस, חדשה משגשגת

 Happy Christmas And A Prosperous New Year

Glædelig jul og et lykkebringende nytår

   חג החנוכה שמחה ושנה חדשה משגשגת

  हैप्पी क्रिसमस और एक समृद्ध नया साल

                

Happy Christmas to all my Actor, Musician and  Writer Friends, 

 

My Family, Twitter, Facebook,

  'Blog and Google Circle friends.

Love Madalyn

                                                                 

And a Wonderful 2013
     

19 pence postage stamp in 1993 celebrating Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol 1843

 19 pence Christmas stamp 1993, now a Christmas Card 

 

THE BICENTENARY OF CHARLES DICKENS

                     The Bicentenary Of Charles Dickens

                      by Madalyn Morgan

                  Charles John Huffam Dickens,

                  February 7, 1812-June 9, 1870
 

“I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me.  May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.

"Their faithful Friend and Servant, C.D. December, 1843”

 

 

A Christmas Carol was the first of Dickens’ Christmas books. The Chimes and The Haunted Man followed, but A Christmas Carol remains the most popular.  It has never been out of print and, like the classic novels, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (which Dickens was writing when he died).  A Christmas Carol has been adapted for film, stage, opera, and other media, many times.  In all professions, but especially in the arts, being in the right place at the right time can mean the difference between fame and obscurity.  In the mid nineteenth century, Charles Dickens was in the right place at the right time, and took full advantage of it.  There was a revival of the old nostalgic Christmas traditions, which the puritans in the 17th C. had tried (with some success) to abolish, as well as new customs, like the Christmas tree and greeting cards.  A Christmas Carol, published in time for Christmas 1843 was an instant success and received great critical acclaim.  

 The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come.

 Dickens' source material for the story came from the humiliation he suffered as a child working in the blacking factory (the ghost of Christmas past).  He was insecure, because he had been abandoned by his father (the ghost of Christmas present).  And he feared what the future would bring (the ghost of yet to come).  As well as sympathy for the poor, and many Christmas stories and fairy tales.

                                                                               

Charles was the second of eight children.  His father, John, was a naval clerk; his mother, Elizabeth, aspired to be a teacher and school director.  The family were poor, but they appeared to be happy in the early days.  In 1816, they moved to Chatham, in Kent, where Charles and his siblings played in open fields and explored the ruins of the old Rochester castle.  But in 1822, they moved to a poor neighbourhood in Camden Town, London.

As a child, Dickens would walk with his father by Gad's Hill Place, a large impressive mansion outside Rochester.  His father told him that with perseverance and hard work he could live in such a house.  Thirty-six years later, in 1856, Dickens bought it.



Charles’ father had always lived beyond his means.  He borrowed money, spent it recklessly, and in 1824 was sent to Marshalsea prison for debt.  His wife and the younger children lived with him there, but Charles, aged twelve, was made to work in Warren’s Blacking Factory where he labelled bottles of shoe polish, and had to find his own lodgings.  Sometime later, his father inherited enough money to pay off his debts.  He left Marshalsea, but he wouldn’t let Charles leave the factory.  Charles hated the dirty and demeaning work and never forgave his father for abandoning him.  The harrowing experience scarred Charles so badly that he wasn't able to pass the former site of the factory, in the Strand, without crying.

     In 1825, Charles was allowed to go back to school.  John Dickens was a socially ambitious man, and a son working in a blacking factory would not have looked well in the kind of society he aspired to.  In 1827, Charles became a lawyer’s clerk.  An experience he uses in many of his novels.

Dickens, The Entertainer

Dickens wanted to be an actor.  He was obsessed with drama.  He joined the Garrick Club at the age of 25 and had many theatrical friends, including the actor William Macready to whom he dedicated Nicholas Nickleby.  Not only was he an avid theatregoer, he loved circuses and melodrama houses.  His periodical writings covered vents and "grimacers," waxworks, freak shows, clowns and gaslight fairies – actors wearing grotesque heads made of papier-mâché.                   Joseph Grimaldi, Panto clown

Dickens was a talented mimic and used to ‘act out’ scenes from his novels before writing them down.  He once paid a theatre manager to let him do a comic turn on stage.  Rather him than me.  The audiences in those days were rough.  They didn’t only mock and heckle, they threw things – orange peel was a favourite for some reason.

  Dickens, Lover and Husband

“A man is lucky if he is the first love of a woman.  A woman is lucky if she is the last love of a man.” 

  Charles’ first love was, Maria Beadnell, the daughter of a banker.  Her parents disapproved and forbade her to see him.  He wrote her passionate letters and stood outside her house every night (which would be considered as stalking today), but his love was unrequited.  He called her the love of his life, until he met her again in middle age.  He said, he was cruelly disappointed, and could not see what it was that had so fascinated him.
 



He married Catherine Thomson "Kate" Hogan (19 May 1815 – 22 November 1879) after she moved to London from Edinburgh with her family in 1834.  Catherine’s father was a music critic for the Morning Chronicle where Dickens was a young journalist.  They were married at St. Luke’s Church in Chelsea, on April 2^nd 1836, honeymooned in Chalk, near Chatham in Kent, and set up home in Bloomsbury. 

As the years went by, Dickens found Catherine an increasingly incompetent mother and housekeeper and blamed her for the birth of their ten children.  

"They separated in 1858 after rumours of Dickens' unfaithfulness were publicised, which he publicly denied."  

 

Dickens, The Adulterer

Charles Dickens and Ellen Ternan

Ellen Lawless Ternan (3 March 1839 – 25 April 1914), also known as Nelly, was an English actress more famous for being Charles Dickens mistress than for her stage performances.

Unlike other literary men of the time, Thackeray or Dickens’ friend Wilkie Collins, who flouted Victorian conventions and had mistresses, Dickens went to great lengths to keep Nelly a secret.  It wasn’t until after his death that details of their affair became known. 

Dickens met Ellen Ternan in 1857 when he was forty-five, and she was eighteen.  As his mistress, Nelly unlocked the pain of his childhood and put an end to his feelings of sexual and social inadequacy.  As his muse, she inspired him to write his finest novel, Great Expectations.  However, the sorrows and complications of their relationship coloured his final novels: Our Mutual Friend, with its many themes of characters living a lie and pretending to be other than they truly are.  And, The Mystery Of Edwin Drood, in which a murder story, based on a tormented love tangle, is set in Nelly's home town of Rochester. 

Catherine, The Loyal Wife 

When Catherine Dickens found out about her husband’s infidelity in 1860, Ellen retired from the stage and lived quietly in a house that Dickens bought for her.  There were rumours that she bore him a son who died in infancy.  But, as Dickens burned many of his personal papers before he died, no one will ever know. 

     Dickens and Catherine had little correspondence after their marriage break up.  Catherine moved to live in London with her oldest son, and Charles to Gad's Hill in Kent.  On her deathbed in 1879, Catherine gave her daughter Kate, a collection of letters that her estranged husband had sent to her, instructing her to "Give these to the British Museum, that the world may know he loved me once." 

CHARLES DICKENS, A REMARKABLE LIFE

"It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and orrow, there is nothing so irresistibly contagious as laughter."   This year we celebrated the 200th birthday of literary hero, Charles Dickens.  I say hero because we all know Dickens wrote about poverty, crime and social injustice.  But there are some things we don't know about the author of A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, and many, many other classics.

Here are some lesser known facts.Dickens saved the lives of many people when the train he was travelling on derailed.  All but the carriage he was in plummet into a river.  He first found the key to the door and after helping his friends to safety, climbed down to help people in the carriages below to escape, giving water and brandy to whoever needed it.  And, if that wasn’t enough, he climbed back into the dangling carriage and retrieved the manuscript of, Our Mutual Friend, which he was taking to his publishers.  You’d have to be a writer to understand that!  His bravery was never publicly acknowledged.  Because he was travelling secretly with his mistress, he denied helping anyone. 

He also helped “fallen women.”  In a world where single or widowed women had few options to support themselves and their families, prostitution was a common crime – and one that was severely punished.  Dickens, along with an heiress called Angela Coutts, created “Urania House” where former prostitutes could learn to read and write, and keep house.  Dickens searched prisons and workhouses for potential candidates and interviewed them personally.  He even established the house rules.  Approximately a hundred women's lives changed after their stay at Urania House.

And, when he was young, Dickens was offered a prestigious audition in Covent Garden.  Thank goodness he was ill and couldn’t attend, or the literary world would have lost a great writer – and every generation since would have been poorer for not being able to read his books.  He wrote, produced and acted in plays with his amateur company.  He did many readings of his work, especially as he got older.  He even performed for Queen Victoria.

A Christmas Carol Ends

Ebenezer Scrooge, “had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!”