I don’t suppose many people have time to read (or indeed write) blog posts at this time of year but I committed to twenty four days of historical novelists and twenty four days thou shalt have. Today’s distraction was the ‘big’ birthday of my significant other. For the past month I have endeavoured to keep various secrets associated with the occasion. This has not been easy. You have no idea the difficulties I have had ensuring that the birthday boy was in the right place at the right time today and not dragging a boat up a slipway, or on his hands and knees cleaning a church. I had asked a few people back to my house to celebrate (or should that be commiserate) his great age. This required an unprecedented level of cleaning and tidying that immediately aroused suspicion. I have decided that I am really no good at subterfuge but the day seemed to pass off well.

Another great historical series for today’s novelist: the Morland saga by Cynthia Harrod Eagles. The thirty five books take this comfortably off family and their estate from The Founding in the time of the wars of the Roses to The Phoenix, which is set in the 1930s. Over the years, the family have links to succeeding generations of the royal family and we watch major events of British history unfold through the story of the Morland family. They become embroiled in the English Civil War, the Jacobite Rebellion, The Industrial Revolution, Suffragism, The First World War and many other key events. We follow one branch of the family to America, so the American Civil War also gets a look in. Family trees in the front of each book help the reader to keep track of the ever spreading clan. The number of characters is kept in check by unrealistically frequent marriages between cousins but I can forgive that. A little like Jean Plaidy, this series is a gentle way of familiarising yourself with historical chronology. Harrod Eagles has the advantage over Plaidy, in that she can work with fictional characters and is not constrained by writing solely about the lives of real people. Forget box-sets, give me a great historical saga any day. I am so glad that the original plan for twelve novels was expanded to thirty five. Harrod Eagles has now turned to writing mystery books but the original brief was to take the family to the Second World War, so we can hope there may be a few more still to come.

Sorry folks, it has been a day of cleaning, cooking and present wrapping, so not much time for blog writing. I will spare you the details of my cleaning regime! I am sure you don’t want to read about the gory details of my swirling ecologically sound cleaning products round toilet bowls. Cake icing then. I should explain that this is not some elaborate creation; I usually opt for a rough snow scene. Something strange happened to the texture of today’s efforts, which somewhat resembled rice pudding. That would be very runny rice pudding. It wasn’t quite as bad as the year when the icing was so lacking in substance that I ended up with a bald cake and a halo of icing on the plate but it was close. My present wrapping efforts were not of the most elegant but the majority of my recipients are not of an age to appreciate the finer points of envelope corners and delicate bows. Time to relax.

More Roman sleuths today in the shape of Lindsay Davis’ Marcus Didius Falco and her later creation, Flavia Alba. Between 1989 and 2010 Davis published twenty novels about the hapless Falco who, together with his sidekick Petronius from the vigils, attempts to solve murders and mysteries in the Roman world. Several of the novels are set in Italia but others take Falco across the Roman Empire, including Roman Britain. We first meet Falco in 70AD in The Silver Pigs. His stable but socially daring, relationship with senator’s daughter Helena Justinia follows the reader throughout the series and we watch their family grow over the years. The historical background is convincing and it is easy to picture Ancient Rome, from Falco’s perilous accommodation in Rome itself, to well known landmarks such as Pompeii and Bath. Falco’s nemesis the Emperor’s official spy, Anacritis, crops up in many of the books; the final one in the series is actually called Nemesis. There are other recurring characters, such as Thalia the exotic dancer. We also learn more about Falco’s own, slightly disreputable, family; these too become people we come to know and love. In fact the careful drawing of minor characters, such as Agatha the laundress, is one of Davis’ great strengths.

The heroine of Davis’ more recent books is Falco’s step daughter, Flavia Alba but somehow I can’t quite take to her as I did to Falco. In a rare departure from the Roman Empire, Davis wrote Rebels and Traitors, set during the English Civil War. Parliamentarian, Gideon Jukes, inhabits a believable seventeenth century world and you can absorb the social history woven within the fast-moving plot. A favourite author and a favourite time period – winner! PS her audio books are on offer this month

Christmas preparations are underway. Firstly, we are attempting to go some way towards toddler-proofing the house. We managed to acquire a couple of second hand but never used, stair gates, which, with luck, will stop small persons who are no longer entrapped in cots from endangering themselves. These were officially A Bargain but required screwing to the door frames in a semi-permanent fashion. As I am just about capable of not hurling myself down staircases (I hope this isn’t a case of famous last words) I was relieved to find that the gate parts are removable and I am not going to find myself crashing into barricades during nocturnal wanderings. The instructions had clearly been badly translated from an obscure foreign language but with very little profanity, one is now in situ, with the assembling of the second on tomorrow’s ‘to do’ list.

Sixty years ago my mother was hand crafting a large Christmas stocking from netting, bias-binding and ribbons. Actually, she was better organised than I, so it was probably sixty years and some months ago. I used it every year for twenty six years, then it passed to my daughter. Thirty years ago, having two daughters requiring stockings, I made one that resembled the first as closely as possible, using different coloured binding and decorative ribbons. My grandchildren have their own Christmas traditions when they are at home but at Granny’s, the stockings are again in use. So, another thirty years on and I am making a third stocking. Realistically, I suppose I might just still be here in thirty years. I wonder if there will be the need to make another then?

Making a third stocking was not without its complications. First I needed to assemble the raw materials. Net curtains seemed the way to go. As my house is hidden away I have no need for net curtains and none survived my last house move. Luckily a horder near me found not only a surplus to requirements net curtain but an alternative in the form of a prawn net. I was tempted by the prawn net but I thought that small fingers might get caught in the mesh and in the interests of making all three stockings as similar as possible, I went for the net curtain. Next bias-binding. Time was when I put a reel of cotton and a card of bias binding in my mum’s Christmas stocking each year; it became a standing joke and a family ritual. Unfortunately, I did not inherit the life-time’s supply of bias binding when she died. I used to get these from Woolworths. Woolworths is no more. Does bias binding even exist in the twenty-first century? I found a local fabric shop and keeping a low profile, kept an eye out for bias bonding. I didn’t want to make a complete fool of myself by asking for something that no one has used for twenty years. It seems it is still a thing, although you now buy lengths from a roll, phew. I am now in the process of hand sewing the binding what suddenly seems to be a very long way round the third generation stocking.

Another North Devon author is pulled from today’s advent box; there is so much talent in this county. Pamela Vass has written several books that are rooted in the Devon landscape. Seeds of Doubt is a novel that has the catastrophic 1952 Lynton and Lynmouth floods as its inspiration. Thirty four lives were lost in the flood, as the monthly rainfall was 250 times the normal level. Pamela’s novel is the product of careful research and reflects the actual speculation about what caused the tragedy; was it a freak weather incident or were there rainmakers at work? Shadow Child has Lundy Island as its setting and investigates the workings of Children’s Services as a young boy is abandoned in mysterious circumstances. Pamela has also written a biography of the computer pioneer Thomas Fowler in The Power of Three. She is currently working on another historical novel, Fire in the Belly: the North Devon Suffragettes. This is another opportunity for me to indulge my love of historical books and those with a local setting in a two for the price of one way, what a delight!

Excited to report that my DNA sample is now residing in a lab in America awaiting processing. The results are due in a month’s time. My blog post that I wrote for the In-depth Genealogist, that I mentioned yesterday, led Morag from the Shetland Island of Unst to take up the twentieth century ancestors challenge that I set. It will be a task for students on my Twentieth Century Family History course too.

My pre-DNA results investigations, to make sure I have done my best to document all my third cousins, continues with a recent break through on one line. This quest does involve plenty of twentieth century research so ties in nicely with my course writing activities. On the potential third cousins front, I have looked again at the descendants of my great great grandparents Thomas and Mary Archer Dawson née Bowyer of Essex. They had six children, three of whom I am certain have no living descendants and therefore no third cousins for me. One of the others is my own great grandmother and I am in contact with my only second cousins (six) who descend from her. This left me with two possible sources of third cousins on this line. One of these stems I have investigated fully and I know that this produced five and only five, third cousins. I have tried to make contact but they did not respond; I may give it another go. Coincidentally, although both families had moved a few miles from the ancestral area by then, I was in the same primary school class as one of these third cousins; we had no idea that we were related at the time.

The final child of Thomas and Mary Archer Dawson gave me more third cousin potential as she had seven children. I have made extensive efforts to extend her descendants down to my own generation and only by revisiting this branch of the family have I made progress on one that I know emigrated to Canada in 1912. New online searches showed that they lived in the same Toronto suburbs as some friends of mine. This led to a series of very helpful people identifying a third cousin and I am hoping to be put in contact. With my paucity of relatives, third cousins count as close family for me, so this is especially exciting. There is still more work to do on this stem but I have already encountered a casualty of the Somme and and American architect who may still be alive. I will report back with news of any progress.

Today I offer you M V Hughes as my historical novelist. I am stretching the definition of the genre a little here as the books in her London series (yes, another series) are semi-autobiographical, despite the preface which claims that the characters are fictional. This tell the story of a late Victorian middle class family, who nonetheless have struggles of their own. Through A London Child of the 1870s, A London Girl of the 1880s, A London Home in the 1890s and finally, A London Family between the Wars, we become immersed in the life of the fictionalised recreation of Hughes’ own family. Molly Hughes was herself well educated, having attended Miss Buss’ North London Collegiate School, trained as a teacher and been awarded a BA, at a time when serious education for women was unusual. London Girl, in particular, provides a very interesting insight into girls’ education of the time. I read this series of four books, which were first published in the 1930s but were reprinted in the 1970s, before becoming aware that there was an earlier book Vivians. This was re-printed after the other four, so for me it was a prequel, even though it was originally published first. I actually think that reading it after the other four is the best order. This tells the story of Molly’s mother’s Cornish mining family and explains the background to the London novels, the first three of which are available as an omnibus volume. I found this excellent commentary about her work, which tells you more. By now you will probably have realised that I enjoy books that have carefully recreated settings, in this case London and Cornwall and well researched history. There was no need for Hughes to research her history as she was writing from personal experience, bringing a veracity to her stories. These books are of their time and are simply but well written. Do not expect sex, violence or adventure, respectable romance does feature but it is the account of everyday life that is the strength of these novels.

You will notice that today I am not writing about lofts, boxes of junk or excessively heavy weights. That is probably because I am suffering from a surfeit of the same. Normal service may or may not resume when my weakened body returns to what passes for normal.

Today’s historical novelist is one who held the rank of ‘favourite’ for many years and I eagerly awaited each new offering. E V Thompson released at least one book every year from his first Chase the Wind, in 1977 until his death in 2012 and I have all but the final half a dozen. Most of his books are set in Cornwall, although he does make use of his experiences in Africa to move to that continent for some of his books, notably those of his most famous Retallick saga. I can’t understand how this series has been overlooked by the makers of costume dramas. My liking for these books stems more from their geographical context than their historical background, which is predominantly Victorian. The reason that I abandoned the later books is because they were becoming a little formulaic with boy choosing between rich girl and poor girl in many of them. This makes them sound like romances and I don’t think that is a fair description. Some are fast paced adventure stories with a love interest thrown in.

The setting is always clearly drawn, be it the Cornish coast, mining towns, the Bristol slums or the wilds of what was then Rhodesia and I think that this is Thompson’s strength. If you love the west country you will enjoy his Cornish novels. Apart from the long running story of the Retallick’s, which spans several generations, there are other mini series amongst Thompson’s output, such as those featuring Amos Hawke or the Jago family. I am a sucker for a saga so these appeal but I was also fascinated by The Dream Traders, which taught me about the Opium Wars, The Music Makers, set during the Irish Potato famine and Seek a New Dawn, which begins in Cornwall but moves to the copper mines of South Australia.

Another historical novelist will be pulled from the advent box tomorrow.