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A passage - a key passage - from the WIP, An Unwise Prince. (Which will likely see the light of day sometime in 2026.)

submitted 3 hours ago • 0 comments

I'm a guest of author Marian L Thorpe on her blog - talking about ghosts and how most of them (assuming you do believe in them) actually, are NOT spooky! #supernatural #GhostEncounters #FriendlyGhosts #Northevon #England marianlthorpe.com/2025/02/16/g...

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

For someone who (as my husband would say) is obsessed with paths and roads and tracks, who dreams of them, writes stories about them (the pull of paths not taken…) I’ve never collected the photos I take of them. But here’s one.

submitted 7 hours ago • 1 comment

“What were you looking for?” “Places the Prince and the general will be vulnerable. To a mob.” I sip my wine. “Or to one man.” Tarquin stares at me. His eyes do not blink for a long moment. “In daylight?” he says.

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Japanese quince (Chaenomeles speciosa) flowering on a south-facing wall yesterday.

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'on the hill’s height are the remains of a tower, possible a medieval watchtower, possibly a warrener's lodge.'

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Today brought: -the spring’s first butterfly (a peacock) -boxing hares -daisies and dandelions out in the grass

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‘…a snatch of a tune floated above the voices: not from the musicians, but from the man close by. He was humming.’ A moment of recognition — and a chance for freedom. mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/escape

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Happy 10th birthday to my first book! Happy 1st birthday to my latest! scarletferret.com/authors/mari...

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

'Hidden by night came Hryllingur, cloud-shrouded, hunting Hrothgar’s hall, bright bale-fire burning In his eyes' mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/hrothgar-a...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

How much more graceful this gate is with the curved upright, rather than straight.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Do you like ghost stories? Helen Hollick has a new collection of real life experiences coming out shortly. marianlthorpe.com/2025/02/16/g...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

"It’s just the best of Norfolk for me..." mlthorpe.substack.com/p/thornham

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“Who’s this?” “My son.” “Didn't know you had one." “Neither did I.” open.substack.com/pub/mlthorpe...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Along this dyke yesterday, dozens of golden plover sat, huddled, looking in the dull light like so many fronds of winter bracken. Among them lapwing stood like sentinels.

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

'Fate our future weaves, whether warrior or monster...' mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/hrothgar-a...

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

A brisk walk today, an easterly wind chill on our faces. At the tideline gulls & oystercatchers fed, & red-breasted mergansers rode the waves. Over the saltmarsh, meadow pipits & skylarks & reed buntings flew up, landed, flew up. On the edge of a tidal pool, five shore larks searched for seeds.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Ambitious sons find ways to supplant their fathers. I say this. Tarquin grimaces, shakes his head. “Philitos isn’t so much ambitious as he is love-struck. His father thinks he’s besotted with one of his tutors’ daughters.” mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/empress-an...

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

A grey damp morning. From the bus to the market town, crows in pairs soaring, groups of tumbling jackdaws, wood pigeons huddled in bare trees.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

It's rare I base a character on a real person, but this was an exception. open.substack.com/pub/mlthorpe...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

In the Wilderness open.substack.com/pub/mlthorpe...

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Chilly today, made even more so by a stiff wind. We walked in the park at Holkham with friends. The waterbirds on the lake didn’t seem to mind the wind; the woodland birds were quiet. But the birds of the day for me were the pair of ravens on their nest on top of the memorial column to Thomas Coke.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

“This is the community’s wealth [property].” www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

I’m never a fast writer, but an hour for fewer than 200 words is slow for me (for prose.) But they were hard words, trying to capture an interaction and a mood obliquely. My trusted alpha readers say they work, so I’m satisfied. And tired.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

‘the findings so far make a compelling case that ancestral Amazonians systematically built up large urban centres and engineered the habitat’

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'…Bjarndýr bowed; Begged he of lord and lady leave To quit their company for rest.' mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/hrothgar-a...

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

A morning's birding on the Wash in sixty words. substack.com/@marianlthor...

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‘Most of the roads and tracks on the 1797 map are still there, not all public, and where they are, often diminished into bridleway and footpath…’

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

I love this book so much ♥️ books2read.com/b/empresssol...

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

The ruins, with some later reconstruction for stability, of the 13th C St Edmund’s chapel on the cliffs at Hunstanton. The lighthouse beyond is mid 19th C. St Edmund was, once, England’s patron saint. A chilly, cloudy day was brightened by a song thrush, bubbling and squeaking loudly in a thicket.

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

“What’s your name?” he asks. “Druisius. Yours?” “Malki.” Cub, in the local language. “Until I am a man,” he adds. “Then a new one.” I grin. “If you learn to swim, maybe it will be Fish.” mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/empress-an...

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

The latest A Muse Bouche Review edition it out ~ Theme: Lies Multiple genres Contributions from @marianlthorpe.bsky.social @louise3anne.bsky.social @jpgarlandauthor.bsky.social @reneegendron.bsky.social and Arlene Davies-Fuhr #shortstories #readingcommunity mailchi.mp/b50672d6ed3b...

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

A 12 km loop walk through the Norfolk countryside today: birds, mammals, history. mlthorpe.substack.com/p/walking

submitted 23 days ago • 1 comment

Hazel (Corylus avellana) flowers: the yellow catkins are male flowers, the tiny red blossoms are female. Along with two male chaffinches in crisp, bright, plumage and a skyful of singing skylarks over a meadow, the promise of spring was present on this mostly-grey first of February.

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

“Sniff the wine,” Kirt told Audun. “Take a small mouthful, hold it a second or two before swallowing, slowly. Then tell me what you tasted.” He watched Audun follow his instructions. “Figs?” the boy said “And … cloves?” “Very good.” from An Unwise Prince © 2025 🖌️credit alt txt

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

#Iceland, 1920. Side effects of too much truth include death… wrap yourself in a blanket and immerse yourself in this #historicalsuspense novel under the #NorthernLights. Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal winner (best historical fiction novel). www.bjornlarssen.com/storytellers #HistFic #BookSky

submitted 26 days ago • 1 comment

Part XVI of Hrothgar and Hryllingur, my retelling (in verse) of Beowulf in the context of my fictional world and characters.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

These two figures have been keeping watch at the ‘Prior’s Doorway’ at Ely Cathedral for nearly 900 years. They are thought to have been carved about 1135 when the door was part of the building of the Norman church (c.1081–1189). 1/2

submitted 28 days ago • 1 comment

Winter aconite just coming into bloom.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

“All gold and silver rather turn to dirt…” Shakespeare has Arviragus say, in Act 3 of Cymbeline. But: 44 gold coins found in a Dutch field belie that statement: ‘The staters bear the name of the British Celtic king also known as Cunobelinus, immortalised by Shakespeare as Cymbeline’

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

'I am meant for camps and cities, to be among many men. There I can do my work. Here, what is there to stop thought?' mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/empress-an...

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments