It feels as if it has been such a long time since I climbed on an Easy Jet flight in Kalamata on 1st July to return to my Oxfordshire village. Yet, tomorrow, I climb back onto a plane to return to Greece for August and September. It has been absolutely wonderful to be home. I have had a fabulous July … Read More
June
June in the Greek Mani began with storms and thankfully June is ending with unrelenting sunshine. Simply, June is a great month to visit Greece. My husband Patrick arrived as June opened. He was closely followed here by two friends who live both in Australia and in Ireland. They have four properties between them. Yet they have been backpacking in … Read More
May in the Greek Mani
May began as a chilly month with occasional beautiful spring weather. The wild flowers here are stunning throughout this season. Rain has made them endure and today as the month closes they remain vivid. I spend my summers in the southern Peloponnese, in a rented house situated between Neohori and Agios Nicholas. Stoupa lies below me and Kardamyli is just … Read More
Medieval Women, flowers, sex, motherhood
Medieval woman was constantly reminded of God’s will and his divine justice. In fact everyone was, men, women and children. The notion of heaven and hell was very real, so real that, throughout the Middle Ages, churches contained wall paintings reminding the people, rich and poor, of Heaven’s blessings and Hell’s terrors. Women during this period were classified according to … Read More
Sarah Bower on The Art of Writing
A big thank you to Carol McGrath for inviting me to join this blog hop and for hosting my post. So, relay baton in hand, here I go… What are you working on at the moment? I’m lucky enough to be writer in residence in the English Department of Lingnan University in Hong Kong until June. While I do have … Read More
The Swan-Daughter and the Art of Writing
Justin Hill has invited me to take part in a WIP (work in progress) Blog Tour. Justin is an award winning travel writer and early medieval expert. His book Shield Wall, set in the years before 1066, is a must read if you like this era. Shield Wall was highly praised by The Times and was included in a Sunday … Read More
April 2014
The first week of April involved traveling. I rent a house in Greece for the summer months near Kardamyli and Stoupa in the Greek Mani. The area is inspirational. It is also my personal writing retreat situated close to where the famous travel writer Paddy Leigh Fermor had his beautiful home. This house features in the movie Before Midnight. My … Read More
A Visit to The British Museum
The Viking Exhibition at the British Museum is a must see for anyone interested in or who, like myself, is researching the era. It is huge. At the moment the exhibition is inundated with visitors but even so it is still possible to enjoy all of the displays. My particular research interest is focused on early medieval Denmark and Russia. … Read More
March 2014
We are half way through March, almost. So far, I have had a busy month researching medieval Kiev in The Slavonic Studies Department in Oxford. I was fortunate enough to be able to read The Russian Primary Chronicle which is the best primary source relevant to this period. I have tweeted about it, enthused about this subject on facebook and … Read More
February
On this page I try to update my news monthly. So…this month began for me with a visit to Kennington Library where I gave a talk on how the Bayeux Tapestry influenced my writing of The Handfasted Wife. The talk developed into a discussion of how to read the scenes in The Bayeux Tapestry and its hidden messages. If you … Read More