Good Morning.  We now have a respite from the busy life of spring work  on the farm.  If one is asked “do you have a minute”, the actual translation is you can expect the whole morning or afternoon to be shot as a minute seems to extend to multiple extra chores.  Today I will ramble about English authors and I also have a story – what a surprise on that one.

A number of years ago when we were in the UK, we stayed with a dear family friend who is also a well-published author of mystery stories.  I had always appreciated the fact that facts are researched when writing a book, but I had no idea to what extent until I saw the time Kinn spent making sure she had everything right.  If not by book – which it seemed new ones arrived virtually every day by postal service, she would spend a good deal of time right in the Scotland Yard offices – her last foray there was to learn the facts about money laundering.  As she said, when writing you have a potential of multi million critics and she still remembers in one of her books when a “standard” U.K. law was cited, she was unaware that in Scotland the government had modified it for Sundays only.  Her dear old Inspector Sloan was in Scotland and ran afoul of the law because of the modification.  She said multiple readers actually wrote her and pointed it out.  Her house was literally filled with books – her one vice.  The third floor was storage only and I recall one night starting to wonder how many piles of books were directly above the bed, the weight of them,  and what would happen if the floor gave away.  It would have been death by books for certain!    By the way – Kinn is STILL writing – a new Inspector Sloan book in the works, doing village histories, playing bridge – and is coming 94 years old. 

Jeffrey Archer is a well known author and his latest – Traitors Gate is a story about William Warwick, a detective with Scotland Yard, once again matching wits with the wily Miles Faulkner who is wealthy, crooked as a dog’s hind leg, in and out of court and jail, and always trying to best Warwick.  This one involves theft of the crown jewels and describes the security and how the crime is solved   I loved it as it took place in London on streets so familiar, and at the Tower of London, where the jewels are kept.  (I am trying to be careful, as I have gotten in trouble when innocently asking daughter if she is reading a book I got to first, if she is at such and such part – often ruining part of the story for her.  I was told NOT to tell the end of the story – so I promise not to ruin  the endings.)

Ian Moore has written three – Death and Croissants, Death by Fromage, and Death at the Chateau.  These stories take place in the Loire Valley in France and poor Richard is trying to run a B and B.  He is not very good with people, often overwhelmed by his guests, and his housekeeper terrifies him.  He much prefers old movies and his chickens – when things get too bad, he hides in the chicken coop.  Valarie, a guest, c/w obnoxious dog, insists that they have to help solve the first crime when a guest at the B and B is murdered.    The other characters, including the whips and chains neighbors, keep life interesting and in each book, Valarie hauls Richard along as they work “helping” solve murders.  I would love to go and explore that area of France – sounds beautiful.

The Antique Hunters Guide by C.L. Miller.  She is a new author, taking the jump from doing catalogues for antique auctions, so writing fiction.    Freya has been enlisted by Aunt Carole to investigate the death of her best buddy, Arthur.  The police ruled it accidental, but the aunt wasn’t buying into that.  It is fun as it has everything one would expect – a cast of characters who are not what they seem, much of it takes place in an old English manor house c/w stormy nights, creaking doors and an unlikely murderer.  (Now, according to friend Kinn, mystery authors plant subtle clues to help one solve the crime before the end of the book – not being subtle, I have hardly ever figured out who the bad guys were.)

Jeremy Clarkson – from Amazon Prime series Clarkson’s Farm – has written a book about their farm life.  It is as funny as the series.  As yet, the library doesn’t have it as it is “on loan” to a friend – but will be “coming soon”  the title is Diddly Squat.

The Last Garden in England is a book that covers 3 generations of women.  The gardens of the manor were designed in 1908 by Venetia Smith, then during WW2, the home was turned into a convalescent hospital and part of the gardens were used to grow vegetables for the war effort. Current times finds Emma Lovell trying to re-create the neglected gardens back to their original glory.  By digging into the past, and with help from neighbors and old plans that were found, she was  even able to restore  the winter garden area to it’s original beauty.  Each part of the garden is connected with stories of people in the span of the generations – specifically the winter garden, which held even more meaning .  There are some wonderful characters in each generation.

Gee – gardens – nothing planted here as yet.  It seemed the few nice days were busy with other chores and being a fair weather gardener, I did not brave the elements to get the potatoes and early veggies in.  I have plenty of supervision.  The pair of geese watch from the dugout and voice their opinions, and the owls take turns from nest sitting to see how things are going.  Earlier, when the “courtship” was going on, the whooing was fun to listen to .  Pretty certain the mister was making some pretty wild promises to the missus.

Let’s enjoy the moisture and there is nothing better than having a good book at hand and settling in.  Sure no use sweating the small stuff as when the storms are over, just think of how green the world will be – and how that grass will need cutting again.  Time to get a goat or borrow a few sheep!!!

TTFN   Beryl