My Favorite English Author

My favorite British author is Eleanor Alice Burford Hibbert a.k.a. Jean Plaidy. At the height of her career in the 1950s and 1960s, Jean (who also wrote as Victoria Holt, and Philippa Carr,) was Britain's most popular historical novelist. Although her novels were ‘fictionalized history’, they were all very carefully researched and based on the works of leading contemporary historians. Her greatest joy was to collect a pile of dusty old history books, read them all from cover to cover, and then transforms the events they described into exciting narratives. She wrote five hours a day, seven days a week, starting at 7:30 in the morning and completed at least 5,000 words by lunchtime.

 If you enjoy reading or writing in a particular era of English history you will take pleasure in these books. No need to be put off by reading fictionalized history, there are no cobwebs here. Her writing is knife-through-butter easy to read. The kind of reading that draws back into history and holds you there until the end. Her books are mostly out of print, but a search around the internet or at your library should put these books in your hands.

 Anglo Saxon Era

The Bastard King
The Lion of Justice
The Passionate Enemies

The Middle Ages
The Plantagenet Prelude
The Revolt of Eaglets
The Heart of the Lion
The Prince of Darkness
The Battle of the Queens
The Queen from Provence
Hammer of the Scots (Edward Longshanks)
The Follies of the King
The Vow on the Heron
Passage to Pontefract
The Star of Lancaster
Epitaph for Three Women
Red Rose of Anjou
The Sun in Splendor

The Tudor/Renaissance Era
Uneasy Lies the Head
Katharine, The Virgin Widow
The Shadow of the Pomegranate
The King's Secret Matter
Murder Most Royal
St. Thomas' Eve
The Sixth Wife
The Thistle and the Rose
Mary, Queen of France
The Spanish Bridegroom
Gay Lord Robert

The Mary, Queen of Scots Era
Royal Road to Fotheringay
The Captive Queen of Scots

The Stuart Era
The Murder in the Tower
The Wandering Prince
A Health Unto His Majesty
Here Lies Our Sovereign Lord
The Three Crowns
The Haunted Sisters
The Queen's Favorites

The Georgian/Regency Era

The Princess of Celle
Queen in Waiting
Caroline, The Queen
The Prince and the Quakeress
The Third George
Perdita's Prince
Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill
Indiscretions of the Queen
The Regent's Daughter
Goddess of the Green Room
Victoria in the Wings

The Victorian Era
The Captive of Kensington Palace
The Queen and Lord M
The Queen's Husband
The Widow of Windsor

The Queens of England Series
Myself the Enemy (Henrietta Maria)
Queen of this Realm (Elizabeth I)
Victoria Victorious (Victoria)
The Lady in the Tower (Anne Boleyn)
The Courts of Love (Eleanor of Aquitaine)
In the Shadow of the Crown (Mary Tudor)
The Queen's Secret (Katherine of Valois)
The Reluctant Queen (Anne Neville)
The Pleasures of Love (Catherine of Braganza)
William's Wife (Mary II)
The Rose Without a Thorn (Catherine Howard)

BRITISH MUSIC

A wonderful pleasure for me is to listen to a British classic music station. I am not a classical music lover, but somehow, I can’t explain it, the English do it better. They play the most incredible music I have ever heard. It’s also fun to listen to English commercials and the English DJ’s. This is a wonderful diversion if your brain is tired of writing and you need a break and want to convince yourself you’re doing this for research! Go to www.classic.fm.co.uk You will need Windows Media Player a computer system Windows 95 or better and for some reason they recommend you allow pop ups . On the top left of their home page is LISTEN NOW. That link should connect you to a live broadcast of their music. But if it won’t (mine didn’t they first few times I tried it—go figure) you can click on How To Listen (on the home page under LISTEN NOW) and follow the links to Listen Again.

BRITISH QUOTES

"...To be fond of dancing is a certain step
towards falling in Love... "- Jane Austen

A BRIT CREATED NOT BORN

You might wonder how a person not born on British soil could be become so obsessed with all things English. Well, I blame my grandmother. Masie Julia. She was born in England in Hampshire which is on the very southern tip of England. Her father, my great grandfather, was a butcher and as a teen she worked in the shop. This was during World War I and with American soldiers in and out of the shop, romance was bound to blossom. She married my grandfather and travelled over to the United States on the Lusitania in 1919. And because my mother, Dottie, was very close to her mother, she fell in love with all things England and travelled with my grandmother back to England just after WWII the only time my grandmother ever returned to the land of her birth. And since I was close to my mother, well, the obsession continued.  So I guess you could say, I wasn't born in England, but England was born into me.

I WILL MAKE A TEA LOVER OUT OF YOU

In this article, I will endeavor to make a tea lover out of you. If you’ve wondered what is all the fuss over English people drinking tea. Maybe you’ve tried some semblence of tea in a restaurant, or some insipid herbal concoction that tries to pass it off for tea, this article is for you.

I will give you two versions. One, the basics of proper tea making, and the more refined British to-the-core tea experience. First, I must tell you American tea won’t work. Lipton is sort of ground up leaves from an oak tree as far as I’m concerned. You must buy British tea. Three that I highly recommend are Typhoo, PG Tips, or Lyons. This is what everyday English homemakers drink and is night and day to American brands. I buy mine at Amazon.com I feel they have the best prices, but I’ve heard some Wal-Marts have started selling Typhoo in their tea section.

You must keep your opened tea containers in a ziplock bag and don’t mix teas in one bag. Teas pick up other flavors very easily and must be kept fresh to be fully enjoyed.

If you’ve tried tea in a restaurant, even if you bring your own tea bag, it will taste terrible. Some brew the water in coffee pots and or they use mugs that have had coffee in them and the taste lingers, ruining the flavor of a good cut of tea. The best tea is made at home.

First, bring water to a boil in a kettle and not in the microwave. When the water begins to roll, it adds more oxygen and gives the tea more flavor. Once boiling, pour the water into a cup and allow it to soak for about a minute. You can stir it once or twice, but don’t mash the teabag or it will give the tea a bitter taste. Remove the teabag so the flavor won’t be too strong. Add sugar, milk, or nothing. When I lived in England, I knew many Brits who drank it black. But never, and I mean never add cream to tea, it is simply not done that way. The cream will overwhelm the delicate tea flavor. Once you’ve made a proper cuppa, sip and enjoy a wonderful taste.

Have I converted you yet? Hmm, perhaps you need to try the truly historical tea experience.

For this you will need:

Tray

Tea pot

A cloth napkin or tea towel

Proper teacup--indulge the part of you that truly wants to experience a feminine, English moment and buy a porcelain, pretty teacup and saucer. I’ve bought mine in antique shops, actually I have a collection, but I always make sure on the bottom it says, made in England. This will greatly enhance your tea moment.

A sugar bowl

Petite glass bowl with spout (for pouring milk.)

Assemble items on the tray, boil more water than you think you will need, then pour enough hot water into the tea pot, about half way to “warm up the pot” swishing it around for about 30 second and pour it out. Then add the teabag (one for one person, two for two etc) and add the hot water.

Stir a couple of times until the color looks like how strong you like your tea, then take out the teabag, put the lid back on the pot and tie the tea towel around the pot to keep it warm. You might consider adding a biscuit (cookie) or two before you take your tea tray to somewhere cozy and savor a truly British tea experience.

Therese

RETURN TO HOME

In a church were Saxons worshipped

Hundreds of years before

I knelt to pray, and found the balm

My heart had been searching for

I care for the wide land yonder

Where my life seems destined to be

But England, only England

Can hold the heart of me

-Margaret Wilkinson Scott

British Movies Favorites

I love British movies. Nothing puts me in a better mood than to be flung back a couple of hundred years into English history. The lilting sound of a British accent--revealing that they are indeed descendants of Shakespeare. The manners so gentile and comforting. The beauty of a country that surely must represent the landscape of heaven. Here is a collection of my favorites...

MY FAVORITE BRITISH MOVIES

A Handful of Dust

Amazing Grace**

A Room With A View

An Ideal Husband

Becoming Jane**

Berkeley Square**

Cranford**

Daniel Deronda**

Downton Abby I and II**

Elizabeth

Emma BBC version**

Finding Neverland

Gosford Park**

Howard's End

Johnny English I and II-modern comedy

Kate and Leopold

King Arthur**

Manor House**--the PBS documentary that brought people back in time (1900) to live as nobility/servants for 8-10 (?) weeks

Mansfield Park (BBC version only)

Miss Potter**

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

North and South** (not the American historical by the same title)

Persuasion (BBC version only)**

Pride and Prejudice (BBC version only)**

Remains of the Day

Sense and Sensibility (Emma Thompson version)**

Shadowlands

The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill

The Buccaneers**

The Winslow Boy**

Underneath the Greenwood Tree**

Wives and Daughters**

** absolute favorites