STORYWORLD

  " The abbey is  a most noble ruin, of immense size, and full of beautiful and romantic bits; there is a legend that a white lady is seen in one of the windows. "  ( Stoker 1890) Bram Stoker It's easy to see why Bram Stoker was so taken by the village of Whitby with its ruined abbey brooding from the cliff top above the quaint Victorian harbour.  The day I visited Whitby was a brilliant sunny day with crowds of holidaymakers taking advantage of the welcome spring weather, but despite the blazing  sunlight the abbey still looked dramatic with its towering Gothic arches and jagged spires. The steps to the abbey ruins It's a gruelling but spectacular climb up the 199 steps up towards the abbey. At the top, guides in monk's costumes  invited me to walk the circular labyrinth and ponder on the mysticism of the place.  Not surprisingly the abbey attracts some strange enthusiasts and I encountered a dabbler in New Age magic who was looking for...

The road to Dufton Ghyll Carpets of bluebells in Dufton Ghyll. Descending into the forest Imagine a walk through a fairytale wood - carpets of bluebells, crystal clear trickling streams,  ancient trees clinging to a mossy rock face, sunlight filtered through lush greenery and centuries-old bridges covered in velvety moss.  This is a typical scene from the Eden Valley in Eastern Cumbria, a gorgeous area of Northern England near to the Pennines, the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. I had the pleasure of staying in the tiny village of Dufton, for a long weekend while researching locations for my new novel, A Proper Lady.   Rediscovering my middle name. I also made a kind of personal pilgrimage to another small village that shares the same name as me.  Puzzled?  Well - I've long hated my middle name, Milburn (which sometimes auto-corrects on my Mac as Milbum and is right now underlined in red as I write), but near the village of Duft...

Durham Cathedral So I'm sitting in a train travelling North West towards Preston and watching the green fields grow dark in the dusk.  This week I've already been up to Durham City where I gazed in awe again at the spectacular cathedral and castle set in a heavily wooded bend overlooking the River Wear, I explored the nearby coastline and the quaint holiday towns of Hartlepool and Seaham, nicely restored from their heavy industrial past. I also had an amazing trip to Whitby, a beautiful Victorian seaside resort on the Yorkshire coast and the site where Bram Stoker's Dracula first touched dry land in England when his ship washed up on shore and the Count was taken to the ruined abbey that still now stands imposingly above the bay.  I'm researching settings for my new novel " A Proper Lady" which will be set partly in the gorgeous town of Kirby Lonsdale, Cumbria and Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast.  Set in the 1890's this novel features the feis...