Location, location…

Anyone familiar with the Calder Valley in West Yorkshire and its history will recognize the inspiration for some of the places in The Companion. In particular Potter’s Pleasure Palace and Ackerdean Mill, whose fictional location and history was inspired by the real-life Gibson Mill in Hardcastle Crags near Hebden Bridge. My love for the Crags […]

Beginnings

Browsing the personal columns of old newspapers is one of my guilty pleasures. They are ripe with intrigue, imagery and unfinished stories. Did ‘S.T.’ ever get to say to ‘R.P.’ the ‘three or four words that in all probability will make much difference’ and did the ‘nice quiet gold-cream Bedsitting room in Chelsea’ find the […]