Hitting send

I love The Wild Rose Press – they’re really good for my ego! Last week I hit send on An Innocent Abroad to my lovely editor at TWRP, and within minutes had an acknowledgement of receipt, and even an intimation that the story will be contracted. If only all publishers were so prompt!

In hopeful anticipation that this story will be contracted soon, here’s a little teaser … this is the slice of paradise where the story is set.

 

Cocktail Friday: Peach Bellini

This month I’m featuring this popular Italian champagne cocktail, which is traditionally made with Prosecco sparkling wine, and which is perfect for the hot summer weather I’m currently enjoying.

It’s not a cocktail of the 20s, since it was created by barman Giuseppe Cipriani of Harry’s Bar in Venice which only opened for business in 1931 (and yes, this is the same Cipriani of that epitome of Venetian style and elegance, Hotel Cipriani).

Why was the drink not named after its creator? Because Cipriani named the drink for Venetian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini.

But no matter when it was created, this is a drink worthy of celebrating the start of a bright, shiny new year.

The Bellini consists of a puree of white peaches marinated in wine mixed with the Prosecco. Originally, the peach puree had a dab of raspberry or cherry juice added to give the drink its distinctive pink colour.

To make the puree, blanche your peaches in order to soften the skins. Remove the skins, pit the peaches, and add a touch of sugar (or peach Schnapps!) to sweeten.

 

Blend the peaches into a soft puree, adding a splash of water if the nectar is too thick. Chill before slowly adding the Prosecco.

Alternately, you could use chilled tinned peaches without the juice, or for the lazy version simply mix the sparkling wine with iced peach juice.

Serve in chilled champagne glasses with a garnish of peach or cherry.

And while you’re sipping on your drink, don’t forget to add “Drink Bellinis at Harry’s Bar in Venice” to the bucket list.

 

 

 

Kicking off the year with good news

What a great start to 2012! I’ve signed off on copy edits for Dear Julia and received a release date: 6th June.

A huge thank you goes to my lovely editor, Nan Swanson of The Wild Rose Press, who has given me encouragement, helped make this a better story, and who has put up with my very nit-picky edits. I’ve really enjoyed working with her again, and appreciate all the time and effort she’s given to this story.

 

Happy New Year!

Best wishes to all my blog readers for the new year. I wish you all prosperity and joy in 2012, and may all your dreams come true.

 

TWRP Holiday Promotions

This holiday season The Wild Rose Press are trying to increase their newsletter distribution, and are offering one day specials throughout the month to newsletter subscribers. There’ll be discounts, gift certificates, free downloads, and more.

You can join The Wild Rose Press newsletter or The Wilder Roses newsletter for exclusive giveaways this holiday season!

TWRP is also giving away a free gourmet cookbook called The Garden Gourmet. You can find out more here.

 

‘Dear Julia’ has a cover!

What do you think?

 

‘Dear Julia’ update

The contract with The Wild Rose Press is signed, the cover artist has been briefed, the blurb has been written, and today the copy edits arrived in my Inbox. This is really happening!

 

Cocktails all around … I have news!

The Wild Rose Press has contracted my next 1920s novella, Dear Julia, as part of their Love Letters anthology. No release date or cover as yet, but watch this space ….

 

Whew!

Early afternoon yesterday I re-checked the email from The Wild Rose Press inviting submissions to the new Love Letters historical anthology – and discovered that the deadline wasn’t today as I thought, but yesterday!

So after a great deal of stomach-knotting and head-aching, and thanks to my wonderful CPs who dropped everything to proof-read my final chapters, I hit send on Dear Julia shortly after midnight. I’m praying the email will be time-stamped at destination, and not in my time zone.

I really enjoyed writing this story. The heroine, Rosalie, is all sunshine and light, and the hero is dark and brooding. What a perfect pair they made – eventually!

Now I just hope the editors at TWRP enjoy it as much as I did.

 

 

Celebrities of the 20s: The Jungman Sisters

It was in DJ Taylor’s book Bright Young People that I first encountered the Jungman sisters, and while recently dipping back into this delightful read, a social history of England in the 20s, I was inspired to blog about them.

Zita and Teresa (nick-named Baby) Jungman were the daughters of Dutch artist Nico Jungman and his English wife Beatrice Mackey. Both girls were still young when their parents divorced, and in 1918 their mother married Richard Guinness (distantly related to the beer family).

Their mother’s remarriage opened up a whole new world for the girls; a world of wealth and privilege. Already blessed with good looks and good minds, they now also had the benefits of good connections and money. Armed with these advantages, the sisters took London by storm … literally.

For them and their friends, London in the 20s was a round of masquerades, scavenger hunts, pranks and parties. Or as Evelyn Waugh described it in his novel Vile Bodies: “Masked parties, Savage parties, Victorian parties, Greek parties, Wild West parties, Russian parties, Circus parties, parties where one had to dress as somebody else, almost naked parties in St John’s Wood.”

The Wilsford Group, photographed by Cecil Beaton (Zita is on the left of the group, and Teresa second from the right)

Cecil Beaton described Teresa as “like a white Gloxinia, with her Devonshire cream pallor and limpid mauve eyes.” Older sister Zita was the quieter, deeper one, described by her friend Loelia Ponsonby as a “master of unusual ideas.” Another friend, Edith Olivier, remembered that she “never moved with the herd.” The sisters were leaders, not followers. They pioneered the famous treasure hunts that became all the rage among the Jeunesse Doree, and by 1930, when the next generation of Bright Young Things was already burning out, Zita and Teresa were living quiet, exemplary lives out of the spotlight.

And this is what I find so fascinating about these two young women: in the midst of all the partying and debauchery of the 20s, they remained true to their own beliefs and to themselves. Devout Catholics, they never compromised their principles. Both refused to get involved with divorced men, and though both sisters were later divorced themselves, they never re-married. Lord Longford once said of Teresa that she was “more like a nun, like a very friendly and fascinating nun.”

Zita Jungman

Between parties, they attended mass and delivered meals to the needy. During the second world war, Zita worked as an ambulance driver in France, coming dramatically close to being caught by the Germans when France fell. After the war, they lived quietly and modestly together, for more than half a century.

For a more detailed inside glimpse into the lives of these two remarkable women, read this article by biographer Hugh Vickers, who met the sisters several times while researching his biography on photographer Cecil Beaton.

There are just two serendipitous moments in their lives I’d like to share:

Teresa Jungman

One of Teresa’s greatest admirers was the novelist Evelyn Waugh. His other great unrequited love was Diana Mitford (one of the famous -and infamous- Mitford sisters, who married first Bryan Guinness, then Oswald Mosley). In 1985 Teresa’s daughter Penelope married Diana’s son, Desmond Guinness.

Later in life, Teresa and Zita moved to Ireland, to live in a garden cottage on the estate of Teresa’s daughter and son-in-law. Both sisters lived to the ripe old age of 102, Zita dying at that age in 2006, and Teresa at the same age in 2010.

These kinds of coincidence would be unbelievable if written in a novel!