This is the first in what I hope will be an occasional history-and-picture series of posts relating to interesting places to visit within the UK. As a historian, and as someone who loves religious history, most of my posts will be about ruined abbeys or ancient churches, and as I’m based in Yorkshire, I’m going to be pretty partisan! However I’m aiming for a broad range of sites that might be of interest.

First up: Spofforth Castle.

History
Spofforth Castle was once the seat of the de Percy family. Originally a fortified manor house, one of 87 such holdings belonging to the Percys, Spofforth was built following the Conquest and granted to William de Percy in the late 11th century. In 1308, Henry Percy, the 8th Baron, obtained a license to crenallate and the manor house became a castle. The following year, Henry bought Alnwick Castle from the Prince Bishop of Durham, Anthony Bek, and moved most of his interests into Northumberland to guard against the Scots. His wife Eleanor remained at Leconfield, East Yorkshire, with their sons.

Henry Hotspur is believed to have been born at Spofforth Castle.

Following the Wars of the Roses, in which the Percys sided with the Lancastrians, the castle was given to Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (‘The Kingmaker’). The Nevilles, bitter rivals of the Percys throughout the medieval period, destroyed much of the castle.

In 1470, the Percys regained Spofforth but were not granted a license to crenallate until 1599. By 1600 the family had abandoned the castle to their steward, and the site fell into disrepair. During the Civil War, Parliamentarian troops occupied the castle and reduced it to its current state of ruin.

The oldest part of the castle is the rock-cut undercroft dating from the 13th century. Henry de Percy built a quadrangle castle in 1308, of which only the two-storey west range survives, flanked by a polygonal stair turret to the north-west. The first floor hall was rebuilt post-1470 and leads onto the castle garth.

The site

The west range.

Entrance to the hall. To the right, the remains of a latrine.

Viaduct of the Harrogate-York railway line, closed down in the 1960s.

The cellar with the 13th century undercroft cut into the sandstone outcrop. 15th century hall above.

Looking north along the cellar/hall.

Entrance to the turret. The door is post-Civil War.

Doorway leading to the northern end of the castle.

The turret.

Looking south along the back of the castle’s west range.

The first floor hall was flanked by a solar and a chapel – note the Gothic window of the chapel.

14th century bridge spanning a stream behind the castle.

The turret, with a jackdaw perched on the walls!

Location: Off the A661, 3.5 miles SE of Harrogate. On Googlemaps: here.
Entrance: Free.
Opening hours: Any reasonable time (10am-dusk).
Parking: On the road in marked bays.

After a certain amount of sneering from the musicians who play for my morris dancing side, it dawned on me that my largely ornamental bodhran, which I bought years ago from some unknown location, was regarded by the musos as “not a real instrument.”  So I decided that this Christmas I would ask for a proper bodhran by a respected bodhran maker – one which did not immediately proclaim me to be a completely ignorant amateur.

I got some advice from our resident bodhran player and I’ve decided to pass it on in case anyone else is thinking of buying a bodhran.

Why did I decide to pass it on?  Am I simply an interfering old busybody?

Well, possibly.  But on Saturday I went into the largest music shop in Cambridge, to see if they had any bodhrans I could test out.  And they did.  They had a whole stack of bodhrans, 18″ in diameter, non-tuneable, with struts in the back and lovely looking decoration around the shell and on the drum skins themselves.

They were charging £80 for the cheapest of these, and I now knew enough to be appalled.  These were really badly made drums – worse made than my old thing, which looked like a quality piece of kit next to them.  They were worth perhaps £25, if you wanted something to learn on, or to hang on your wall.

What was so bad about them?

Well:

1. The drum shell was rough – neither varnished nor painted.  Not even properly sanded smooth.  You’d have got splinters from it.

2. The inner reinforcing ring, into which the tips of the staples/tacks holding the drum head protrude, did not even join.  There was a milimetre gap between the ends.

3. There was no tuning system (meaning that the skin would get lax and floppy in wet weather, and tighten possibly to the point of tearing in hot, dry weather.  It couldn’t be tightened or slackened off.)

4. The cross braces of the drum at the back were unsanded, and could not be removed.  Given that playing the bodhran involves the left hand travelling across the back of the skin, immovable cross braces are as useful as a headache.

5. The lip of the drum, across which the skin was stretched, was cut at a right angle.  This means that the tone of the drum will be flat and thin and knowledgeable listeners will wince when you play.

I thought “how awful!  If I was just taking up the drum and knew nothing, I might have bought one of these.  Then I’d be £80 out of pocket and the musos would still be laughing at me!”  So I thought I would do a post about what you should look for in a bodhran before you buy.

1. Unless you’re a giant with very long arms, 18″ is too big for most people.  I’ve borrowed a 15″ diameter one from John and that’s just right for a 5′5″ tall person like me.

2. It’s very important indeed that the lip of the drum, over which the skin is stretched, should be rounded.  This helps to give a truer note and a more mellow tone.

3. The drum shell should be sturdily and strongly made, and not show any signs of parting under stress.  It should be varnished or painted and butter smooth – you’re going to have it tucked under your elbow for hours, you don’t want splinters.

4. There should be an internal tuning system to tighten or slacken the skin depending on the weather.  You can get them with external tuning systems too, but I reiterate the bit about having it tucked under your elbow/armpit as you play.  Tuning bolts on the outside must be terribly uncomfortable.

5. You’re looking in a price range of approximately £150 and upwards for a good drum (but not that much far upwards.  If you’re into the £400s, you’ve probably gone too far.)  Ideally you would want to try them before you buy, but that’s not really possible unless you live near a maker or a really good shop.  I’ve had these recommended to me, so I’ll pass that on too:

Mog at Renegade Rhythms

Brendan White

Rolf at Bodhran Info.com

I’m currently borrowing a 15″ Mog, and I don’t really want to give it back

I must be getting used to this. I no longer get butterflies in the tummy as I go in through the door of Joe Daflo’s, I’m used to being the second youngest person present and I know that no-one will kill me if I say I write gay romance. I do still have the feeling that they’ll out me one day and discover that I’m not really a writer, but that’s more how I feel about me than how they feel.

Today’s speaker was Jenny Haddon – author, RNA treasurer and generally good egg. She was telling us about the history of the RNA, which celebrates 50 years of existence in 2010. They’ve undergone changes of name, and perhaps of mission, but the present day organisation’s aims are (in their words):

We work to enhance and promote the various types of romantic and historical fiction, to encourage good writing in all its many varieties, to learn more about our craft and help readers enjoy it.
Romantic Fiction covers an enormous range, from short stories through category romance and much of women’s fiction, to the classics. The nature of romantic fiction means that most of these novels are written and read by women. The RNA, however, boasts a number of very successful male authors amongst their membership.

The list of Past Officers boasts plenty of well known names, and it was the stories about some of these larger than life characters which enthralled us. There was no surprise in hearing tales of people who had Ivor Novello round to tea or ones who didn’t think you were ‘in’ unless you had royalty in your address book. What was more intriguing were tales of the author who travelled abroad to watch operas and came home wearing fur coats and jewels which belonged to Jewish people who were about to leave pre-war Europe (the valuables being, in effect, smuggled in plain sight so that when these émigrés arrived they would have something of value to sell).

Given the present hoo-hah on various fronts (you don’t need to spell that out, do you?) I listened to some of the early history trying to fight a wry grin. Back-biting, power struggles, people unable – or unused – to working together and having consensus decisions, all the familiar elements were there. Author branding and maintaining the image the public expect, the under-appreciation of romantic fiction by the ‘highbrow’ critics – plus ca change? And when Ms Haddon described organising authors as being like herding cats I wanted to shout out ‘Bingo!’

As I keep saying to any UK writers, find your local RNA chapter and hie thee hence. You’ll love it.

I couldn’t help but respond the other week to a person who left me a comment on my website, a comment assuring me that what they had to say may look like spam but assuring me it wasn’t. All I could do was protest loudly that their site looked like…well, spam. Having disapproved of the comment I sent it off into the protective clutches of my anti-spam programme and then, aggravated beyond reason by what could well be another scam or copyright violation, I posted a response. I copy it for the readers of Britwriters because I believe and hope it clarifies the law with regards to the passing on of books, especially ebooks:

You say you’re not a publisher and yet you’re making money selling free ebooks? This is an oxymoron. If you are selling books they’re not ‘free’. Secondly, you say you’re not a writer so where are you getting these books from? Are you selling other people’s free ebooks? If you’re doing so without their permission you are in violation of copyright law. If you are buying ebooks and selling them on, you are in violation of copyright law. On both counts, I advise you to read the statement that runs in my side bar. If you are doing something else, which I don’t understand, my apologies, but no, I’m not going to download your report file from a site that says very little. For all I know it could be a virus. I’d advise everyone else not to do so either. This isn’t personal. I’m just being sensibly cautious. Sorry.

Look, copyright law on ebooks is simple. You cannot copy, distribute, resell or loan an ebook. Saying that, most of us wouldn’t object if we heard you’ve made yourself a back-up copy purely for your own personal use. We live in a wonderful age of technology but technology fails us from time to time. We hear you’re selling our work and we’ll come down on you like the proverbial ton of bricks. Writers and publishers are getting better at locating piracy sites and law enforcement is finally taking it seriously.

The most common question we hear is “If I can resell or loan a printed book, why can’t I as a reader resell or loan ebooks?” To be honest, even the reselling or lending of some printed books is a grey area. However, it tends to be overlooked because of several reasons.

1. Most people hate the idea of printed books being destroyed. If you’re finished with them and cannot pass them on in some way they are only good for recycling.
2. When a printed book is passed on, someone may find an author they like and start buying new books by that author on a regular basis. It’s sort of free-advertising and yes, one could argue this would apply to ebooks but there’s a major difference and reason why this doesn’t work so read on.
3. Many second-hand books are sold for charity purposes.
4. You are giving up your physical edition of the book and will no longer own it.

Point 4 is the major one. When you give, sell, or loan a printed book you give away the item you purchased. Even when loaning it, you risk not getting it back. You are not making a ‘physical copy’ of that book to pass it on.

When you pass an ebook on (and some people do this in innocence not piracy but they are still in the wrong) the reader tends to ‘keep’ their version and simply send the file on, thereby making a ‘copy’. I can assure you that this is just as illegal in printed works.

Imagine you took one of Stephen King’s novels, dissected it, scanned it in, printed it up either by POD (good luck — they would spot what you are doing in a flash), or via the printer at home, and tried to give it away, sell it, or hand to a friend. Should SK find out do you think he wouldn’t sue your arse off? Oh yes, he would!

The point is you are not allowed to make a ‘copy’ of any written work be it printed or electronic. You may (usually) print off an electronic book with the purpose of reading it in that form should you not wish to read on screen, but that printed form is subject to the same laws. You may not sell it, or pass it on. If you wish to pass on an ebook the only viable way to do this is buy an extra copy, and what’s so wrong with that? We all have people to buy presents for.

Oh…and to those who think they can file share their ebook library, has nothing I’ve stated sunk in? Besides, you are NOT a library and did you know that even if you were there is such a thing as the ‘public lending right’? This means that an author can, if they wish, claim a small payment every time a library lends one of their books. So next time you choose to file share, don’t be surprised should you receive a letter from the authors asking for an audit of the number of ‘loans’ and demanding payment from you!

You are not a publisher and the author has not signed a contract with you. You do not have the right to sell.

You are not an official state library. You do not have the right to loan (and let’s be honest — loan in electronic format means copy and give away).

You are not friends with thousands of strangers online that you simply ‘must’ lend your books to (and we’ve already established that you are not lending but copying) and authors and publishers will not turn their back on you ‘giving’ their work away.

I’m not speaking to those who are deliberately committing an act of piracy. They know they are breaking the law, damaging authors and the publishing industry, and they just don’t care. The most we can do is assure them that while there will always be crooks there will always be those willing to fight them. I’m speaking mainly to those that do this in innocence, not understanding that they are doing anything wrong. You claim to love us as writers. You claim to love our work. We do work — hard — at this. Most of us have day jobs, families, lives just like you. We have to find time to write on top of all that. We often forsake sleep. Many don’t make as much money as you think and even if we did, haven’t we ‘earned’ it? You love our characters, our worlds, our stories. You claim to love our work and even to love us. Why do something fundamentally harmful to someone or something you love?

Did you know there are pirate copies of the “I Do” anthology out there? A book I took part in for charity. The thought that people can be so low as to steal from charity has made some of us authors want to puke. If you’re doing this in innocence or not, rest assured, we’re very upset with you.

So, this past Sunday was designated ‘The Big Lunch day, which was a campaign that set out to encourage people to get together and have group lunches – street parties, picnics, barbecues with their neighbours – all in the name of building stronger communities.

Now, I realise that it’s totally missing the point of the thing to drive a couple of hours over to my parent’s to have lunch with their neighbours, and that it’s missing the point with a cherry on top to then ask my best friend to drive an hour or so from the other direction to meet us for lunch, but opportunities to hang out with my family, chosen and blood, are not to be ignored.

The Big Lunch for my parent’s village was a hog-roast in the churchyard – a more food-oriented version of the Village Fair, in a way, with several familiar elements (the tents and gazebos, the bouncy castles, the twelve year old from the local school who not only wrangled the sound system but also stage managed the entertainments)

The local pub provided the beer tent, and local families chipped in salads, sides, and some mighty and delicious cakes for desert. Plenty of sharing of garden chairs and picnic blankets and so on. They got a good turn out too – most of the village, plus some family and guests – and I think they hit the desired note of ‘we’re all working together and having fun’.

A good day, then?

Yes, absolutely.

However: this is England, in July. That means, of course, it rained at us – not continuously, but in short, sharp, hard showers.

But then, this is England, in July, so the crowds merely retreated to the shelter of trees / tents / umbrellas and continued to picnic regardless.

There does come a point, though, when you are sitting there, eating your picnic, under your umbrella, in the rain, in a church yard with bunting and bouncy castles, and the sound system delivers Elgar, when you and your family and your best friend are struck by just how stereotypically English the whole thing is, and contract the helpless giggles.

So yes, a very good day!

I use a double desk arrangement, one for the computer, one for the rest. It means twice the area to put things down with the good intention of tidying them up later. But, like others of a messy persuasion, I really do know where everything is. It’s also very much who I am. I hope I don’t mean a total wreck, but rather it’s the place where there’s just me and my characters and my words. No need to make any of the compromises that are necessary in normal social interactions. I can just sit there as an observer and record the goings-on.

The room’s in the basement of our house and I look out on a lush corner of the garden. Standing among the grasses and shrubs is a carving of an eagle I did at a class I started attending in order to find out what it felt like to carve a figurehead. That was research for my historical novel The Figurehead but I liked it so much that I still make things.

On the desks (and floor) apart from work-related bits and pieces, I have family photos and strange little things I’ve picked up at conferences and the like, such as a wee armchair for my mobile to sit in, or a long spring with a dog’s head at one end and a tail at the other in which I stick letters and things – my in-tray, if you like.

On one wall, there’s a huge poster for the film Germinal – a great book and a reminder of how nasty the gap between the haves and the have-nots is and always was.

In brief, though, and with no pretentiousness intended, the desks are like those magic mirrors and things – places you walk through to enter other worlds.

I was invited to the July meeting. I survived it and wrote it up:-

Today was the bi-monthly local Romantic Novelists’ Association lunch. I love going to these – not only is it held in a nice venue, and I get lunch out, the event makes me feel young and rather techno whizzy (as opposed to feeling old and techno Neanderthal, which is my usual state). 

Out of about fourteen people present, there was an author in her thirties and then, at a sprightly fifty-one, I was second youngest. (Apart from my sixteen year old daughter, of whom more anon.) If I was being stereotypical I’d say that most of my fellow romance writers look just like you’d expect them to. And there’s nothing wrong with that, in fact it’s rather reassuring. 

It’s always interesting when we start chatting about how we meet other authors, promote, deal with publishers, etc. A number of people aren’t into online stuff at all, which makes me think I’m cutting edge, although it was interesting that it was the youngest author who thought one of the reasons Kindle wouldn’t take off was not being able to read it in the bath. And one of the more mature ladies who said that Kindle was the way forward, once they sorted out the technology and was outlining its many advantages. (So don’t judge a book by its cover…) 

The speaker was Jean Fullerton; it’s always fascinating to hear successful authors talk about how they got their break and she was particularly interesting when she spoke about her experiences with the RNA new writers scheme, which had been decidedly curate’s eggy. She is dyslexic, so had taken the decision to have her submissions professionally produced to create a good impression (that rang bells, given the four macaronis’ experiences on the acquisitions team for ‘I Do’). 

I sat with a different group of people this time, so had to go through the whole “What do you write?” “Gay romance, Edwardian gay romantic suspense.” Slightly different responses this time – not negative but a distinct hint of people thinking “I really don’t know what to say in reply”. Interesting to have Number two daughter listening in, as she picked up this, too. The pro-Kindle lady was least nonplussed, comparing the genre to Sarah Waters’ work, and the conversation neatly turned to doing historical research for novels. Still, I got invited to another writers’ event (a group who meet at Borders) so I wasn’t persona non grata. 

And as for my beloved daughter? Another book you can’t judge by her cover. She creates a rather ditzy impression, so people are left gobsmacked when she confesses to wanting to read medicine. She doesn’t say a lot when she’s with strangers but what she says is very perceptive. When asked if she had any writerly ambitions, quick as a flash she said “Writing’s a bit too much inward looking for me. Authors are in a room somewhere, working on their own. I prefer things where I can interact with other people.” 

Which left silence around the table and me with real food for thought.

This my ‘permitted’ introduction of me and my stuff. Trouble is, self-promotion doesn’t come easily to Brits – well, not to this Brit anyway. Especially as it’s all been done elsewhere. I mean, if anyone were interested in me or my work they’d have checked out my website and blogs already. So, while I can’t summon up the hyperbole that’s usually the norm for pushing books and self, I can – very quickly – sketch out the basics.

I was a university lecturer (in French) before taking early retirement to concentrate on writing. The decision to do that was easy since I was already writing commercial and corporate things (websites, videos, PR materials, brochures, ads, etc.) so I knew I wouldn’t be destitute. In the early days, I wrote radio plays and the BBC were great patrons – but the organisation’s changed so much and their filtering system is so weird that the impulse to send them stuff has all but gone.

My stage plays (for adults and children) have been performed here and in the USA. I also have an Equity card and have presented TV programmes, acted in and directed all sorts of plays, and I wrote and performed in several revues at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I won a prize for a verse translation of a Molière play and have been invited to the USA on several occasions as guest artist and associate professor.

I’ve been a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at three universities – Robert Gordon’s in Aberdeen and the Universities of Dundee and St Andrews. I co-wrote Just Write, a book aimed at helping students to research, structure, write and edit essays and other written works.

I write short stories and like to vary my output. I’ve written for children, have had stories selected for the Crime Writers’ Association’s annual anthologies and, most recently, have had a sci-fi thriller anthologised. Three of my police procedural novels have been published here and the first two have also appeared in US editions. They are Material Evidence, Rough Justice and The Darkness. This summer, I have a historical novel, The Figurehead, appearing in the USA in ebook and paperback.

Those are the facts. The only thing to add is that my latest crime novel, The Darkness, has gone through many stages, changes of personnel and structure. It began life as a pure, bleak revenge story but I wasn’t satisfied with the Daily Mail editorial aspects of it and I wanted to find a more challenging approach to vigilantism, revenge and compassion. As a result, it’s taught me more about my central character and I now need to rewrite books four and five of the series (which are already completed) to accommodate that new narrative thread. I also know the plot, the structure and the uncompromising ending of what will be the sixth and final one.

And, since promotion is allowed this time round, I’ll repeat a couple of sentences from a review which please me because they pick up on my central aim. The review was published in the Dumfries and Galloway Standard and told potential readers ‘When you read The Darkness be prepared to be manipulated and have your moral compass reset by this master storyteller’. And the review ended with ‘Get yourself a copy of The Darkness and ask yourself this: what would you do?’

The commercial break is now over.

I am so excited. My first ever ebook has just been released as a paperback. I know it won’t suit everyone – it’s an erotic romance but I’m very proud of it. It opened a door after many years of rejections and now I have a whole list of books coming out this year.

The book is available from Ellora’s Cave

http://www.jasminejade.com/p-7149-perfect-timing.aspx

and eventually  Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Blurb – in case anyone is interested.

PERFECT TIMING – BY BARBARA ELSBORG

When Daisy books a Sixties extravaganza on the internet, she thinks hippies and free love. Only she misses one tiny word in the advertisement and ends up at a weekend for over-sixties at Bedlingham Manor.

When sexy hotel manager Jake casts Daisy as a nun in the murder mystery, she is ready to scream and call the weekend off. But then Jake shows up dressed as a priest and he can’t wait to uncover the red lace beneath the nun costume. Jake and Daisy don’t expect to fall in love but they discover that their weekend of hot sex might be much more than they bargained for.