The ‘Walk of the Day’ for June 11th is ‘The Swaledale Circular’, and I have provided sponsorship because it is an opportunity for readers to explore the area where you will find my fictional sleuth, Dr Mills Sanderson.
The ‘Swaledale Circular’ is an eleven-mile walk around Swaledale that starts and ends in the village of Gunnerside. From there, the path follows the river to Muker, via Ivelet, passing close to Mossy Bank, the home of my fictional sleuth Dr Mills Sanderson. Mills has been known to visit the pub in Muker, and the walk to Keld is one of her favourites. The route follows the river to Keld before turning eastwards towards Gunnerside Moor, a barren area where there are fascinating...
The better weather has finally arrived in time for the late lambing season that we have here in Swaledale.
Now, with the days growing longer and the evenings lighter, I would normally begin a series of dates throughout the year, talking to groups about my crime novels. This year is different for obvious reasons and I have just re-organised a booking from next month to May next year! It is disappointing but as we gradually emerge from lockdown things will begin to get back to some kind of normal. Meanwhile I am busy editing the first book in a new series. For readers who have asked when they might...
Have you noticed how fictional detectives enjoy crosswords and other puzzles?
Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse is a good example of a crossword solving policeman, indicating his astute mind and ability to solve clues, however obtuse they might be. I sometimes manage to complete the cryptic crossword in my paper but recently I have been doing jigsaws in my spare time. It began with the traditional picture of a garden but soon I found Escher’s “Waterfall” tucked away. It is grayscale and very repetitive – so that took a while. But now I have...
Despite everything let’s try to be positive!
No-one wants to have another year like the last one and we all hope that rolling out the vaccines will eventually get the virus under control. Meanwhile we all need to keep safe and carry on. So how did you keep going during 2020? Gardening seems to be a common theme and I certainly spent a lot of time in the summer weeding, pruning and generally keeping my garden in the best shape ever. Once autumn arrived it was back indoors to a combination of books and jigsaws. I have enjoyed reading a...
We’ve already had snow in the Dales
Something magical happens when the snow falls – everything goes very quiet. Traffic slows down to a crawl and noises that normally echo across the Dale are muffled. We are suddenly able to see evidence in the tracks of the animals that are usually hidden from view: deer, stoats – or is that weasel? Children appear with sledges to spend the morning sliding down the hillsides and there is excitement when the snowplough arrives. My book “Frozen Ground” is set...