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A Passion for History
Webmaster - Andrew Cornick |
| Place of Birth: | Bradford, Yorkshire, England |
| Star Sign: | Leo with Capricorn ascendant |
| Most unusual job: | Serving refreshments on a steam railway |
| Most pointless job: | Sticking price tags on training shoes for 9 hours a day |
| Hobbies: | Wildlife watching and conservation, history, reading about the family tree |
| Food to win my heart: | Monkfish with garlic and parsley potatoes |
| Historical Heroes and Heroines: | Richard III, Anne Boleyn |
| TV Costume Dramas I grew up on: | Poldark, Robin of Sherwood, Dick Turpin, Kidnapped |
| Writing Influences: | Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Mr Conway and Mrs Thomason (English), Mrs Chary (History) |
| Favourite Poems: | Ode to Melancholy, Keats; Dover Beach, Matthew Arnold (I'm such a cheerful person!) |
| Favourite books: | Mist Over Pendle, Robert Neil; I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith; Persuasion, Jane Austen; Devil's Cub, Georgette Heyer; Frenchman's Creek, Daphne Du Maurier |
| Best first line: | "Penitence Hurd and the plague arrived in London on the same day." Diana Norman, The Vizard Mask |
| Favourite romantic scene (book): | The scene where Lucy and Max rescue the dolphin in This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart, closely followed by the scene where the dolphin rescues Lucy! |
| Best last page: | Robert Harris: Pompeii - Pure romance and a wonderful story! |
| Favourite films: | Broken Arrow; The Mask of Zorro; Paperback Hero; While You Were Sleeping; The Usual Suspects |
| Favourite romantic scene (film): | The last scene in Broken Arrow (Yes, really!) |
| Favourite hot scene (film): | That scene in Butch Cassidy... (you know the one!) |
| Favourite songs: | I Drove All Night, Roy Orbison; Take a Little Piece of my Heart, Erma Franklin; Bat out of Hell, Meatloaf; Can't Help Falling in Love, Andy Williams; Black Dog, Wolfstone |
| Favourite bands: | Jethro Tull, The Levellers, The Killers |
| Inspirational classical music: | Beethoven's Fourth Symphony, Grieg Piano Concerto, Saint-Saens Organ Symphony, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto |
| Favourite Historical Places: | (Tough choice!) Wayland's Smithy, Wiltshire; Westwood Manor, Somerset, Great Zimbabwe |
| Favourite places in the UK: | The Mendip Hills above Cheddar, Somerset; The Suffolk coast; Lundy Island; Wester Ross, Scotland. |
| Favourite places visited abroad: | Iceland, Tromso in Norway, Costa Rica, Prague, Stockholm, Tanzania, Sanibel Island Florida |
| All time favourite Regency: | The Beau and the Bluestocking, Alice Chetwynd Ley |
| Top Ten historical novels: | The Vizard Mask, Trade Wind, Mist Over Pendle, The Other Boleyn Girl, Gallows Thief, Timeline, I Capture The Castle, Frenchman's Creek, The Sunne in Splendour, Pompeii |
| Aspirations: | To visit Alaska, to see the Northern Lights again, to write a big historical novel about Ashdown House |