Hello, and thank you for visiting my site. I hope that you'll return often and always find something of interest about my world and what inspires me to pick up a pen. (This is a figure of speech, unfortunately. My handwriting is terrible!) Here's what I've been up to recently...

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside!

Scarborough1July14MandD

Scarborough has a lot going for it on a sunny day. Well, OK, the North Sea is always cold and paddling is as far as it gets for me these days, but there’s plenty more to enjoy.

Did you know that Charlotte Brontë brought her sister Anne here in 1849 in the hope that the sea air would improve her health. Unfortunately, it was no match for ‘consumption’ (pulmonary tuberculosis) and Anne’s grave can be visited in St Mary’s churchyard, beneath the walls of Scarborough Castle and overlooking the sea. Many visitors make their way up there to pay tribute to this sometimes underrated Brontë sister, the only member of her family not to be laid to rest in Haworth.

However, having been marched up there before, David was keen on this occasion to confine our ramblings to the length and breadth of the South Bay. That area holds a lot of memories for me too, particularly from the days when I worked as an ‘extra’ on The Royal. The building that stood in for the hospital can still be seen on the Esplanade, behind us to the right in the photograph. (Interior scenes were filmed in a disused ward of St Luke’s in Bradford.)

I missed the Scarborough Book Festival this year but look forward to seeing what the 2015 programme will have on offer next April.

30 July, 2014 - Make the first comment on this story

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