WRITER
All families have stories; some stories are almost myths… did my ancestors really come from Sweden? Were they really river pilots or pirates operating out of the east coast port of King’s Lynn? Some family stories are true, although some facts may be hidden; my great-grandparents loved each other across a religious divide, but where and how did they meet? Some family stories are only revealed through census records and some genealogical detective work. I want to tell the stories of my family, and others who otherwise might be lost in the past.
I have a fascination with graveyards and old memorials and commemorative plaques, not to be morbid but to wonder about past lives. So often there is a story behind the inscription and sometimes little biographical notes tell us something about the person who is being remembered. So wandering in the Kingston Cometary in Portsmouth, I glanced […]
MoreI came across a recipe called Gran’s Special Cake: 12 oz flour 8 oz sugar 4 oz butter 8 oz sultanas 2 lightly beaten eggs 1 tsp ground cloves 1 tsp ground caraway 1 tsp ground cinnamon ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda dissolved in a little water rub in butter and flour, stir in sugar, […]
MoreAll through my teaching career, when I had to set imaginative writing tasks for my students I absolutely forbade them to end their stories “… and I woke up and it was all a dream…” I thought that was the most feeble and pathetic ending… and if when I was doing exam marking I had an essay which […]
MoreFleam Dyke was a favourite place to go for picnics when I was a child, and here is a photo of us, when I was about six or seven,leaning against my aunty on the right, and my sister sitting by my mum just left of centre would have been four or five. My dad is […]
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Lois Elsden 