Dancing in the Shadows of Love - the book

Shakespeare, Southern Africa, Spiritual connections, emotional aspects and more add up to make Judy Croome's book a melding of thought processes across many layers of life: ancestral, colonial and philosophical ...

"On the Prowl" - original art by
Fuz  Caforio (c/o Judy Croome)

In this Question and Answer interview Judy gives us more background to her wonderful novel "Dancing in the Shadows of Love", which allows us to explore the world that is Southern Africa, to gain a greater understanding into our humanity ... enjoy!

Judy has kindly offered you a GiveAway ... details to enter are at the end of the post ...

Tell us a little about your novel “Dancing in the Shadows of Love”

In the haunting “Dancing in the Shadows of Love,” three emotionally adrift women fight to heal their fractured worlds. Not everyone can be a hero. Or can they?

Buoyed by touches of magical realism, this story is a spiritual one and, while remaining remarkably areligious and boldly atmospheric, explores the sacrifices people make in the pursuit of a love that transcends everyday existence. Lulu’s quest, and that of Jamila and Zahra too, is to find the divine love that will fulfil their hopes and save their souls...if they can recognise the masks of those who seek to lead them astray.

And you can read reviews   or watch the book trailer  or read an interview with the cover artist Wenkidu or read chapter one and find out about the quotes I used .

Penguin Classic

All the chapters in “Dancing in the Shadows of Love” begin with a quote from a Shakespearean play.  With the exception of the last chapter’s quote, which comes from the comedy “Love’s Labour’s Lost”, all the other quotes were from tragedies. Was this just a coincidence?

There’s very little that’s coincidental in this story. Each quote sets the scene for the chapter to follow. I want this story to show people that, no matter how bad things get, there is always hope. So the quote “Charity itself fulfils the law, and who can sever love from charity?” (Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act IV, Sc iii) summarises one of the main themes of the novel: compassion, which is the highest form of love, can heal many things wrong in this world.

Isn’t that a naïve outlook? That love solves all?

I prefer “optimistic” or “positive reinforcement” to the word “naïve.” There are so many novels (and movies and songs) which reflect humanity in all its petty meanness and deep depravity. If people are only shown how bad things are, how will we ever reach the highest good we’re capable of? It’s about time someone wrote a story which showed the way things can be, if ordinary people start living in hope rather than living in fear and despair.

In a recent interview author Judith Mercado quoted Zahra, one of the three main characters in “Dancing in the Shadows of Love” who, in the novel, said, “We are lost, and I was aware that the glimpses we have of love, a transcendental love that is sacrosanct, are reserved for the privileged few.” How do you define transcendental love?

Transcendental, or Divine, Love is an a priori human potential that exists within all of us, irrespective of our culture or religion or life circumstances. When we find within us that capacity to overcome our subjective hurts and emotions; when we can reach out a helping hand to others, across all the external barriers and differences that separate us, and all the pain and suffering of our own secret wounds, we transcend our humanity and reach our highest potential as human beings.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said, "If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility." When we’re hurting or angry or betrayed, and we can still find the inner strength to tap into that a priori compassion within our soul to disarm our hostility towards others, then we have made the dream of transcendental love a reality.

Masvingo, near Zvishavane, Zimbabwe

Zahra, lost in her despair, does not realise that this love is available to all of us…if we choose compassion instead of hatred; peace over anger and forgiveness over revenge. And, as Zahra finds out, this love is not reserved for a “privileged few” but is accessible to ordinary people, like me and you, who want to make a difference in the world.

Tell us a little about yourself

Born in a little village called Zvishavane in Zimbabwe, I’ve spent most of my life in South Africa. My diverse career path has had me working as a waitress in a steakhouse; as a bartender in an English pub (to earn money to pay for a hot air balloon ride for my Mom and myself!); and as an accountant, which was my career for many years. 

Always fascinated by evolutionary astrology, I resigned as Chief Financial Officer for a large accountancy firm when I got married, and spent the next decade dabbling in writing novels, while studying and practising evolutionary astrology.

I loved helping people through crisis times in their lives, but two years ago, I was so drained from all the emotional counselling, I decided it was time to follow my own destiny and concentrate on my dream of writing fiction. So…here I am!

What natural talent would you like to be gifted with?

The Mozart family on tour:

Leopold, Wolfgang, and Nanneri.

Watercolour by Carmontelle, ca 1763

If I could choose a talent, it would be to write music like Mozart.

 Where can we connect with you on-line?

Twitter, Goodreads and LibraryThing are the best places to find me.

You can also find me on my blog and on Facebook.

Giveaway

Four random commentators will win one of 2 Paperbacks and 2 eBook editions of “Dancing in the Shadows of Love” offered by author Judy Croome.

Rules:

- Leave a comment with your email address.

-Only one edition per winner

-Please mention what edition you would like to win if your name is drawn

- International

- Ends (8 October 2011)

Judith Mercado's blog

NB I've put word verification back on .... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

The Bible, Jane Austen, Stanford University, Voltaire, Project Gutenberg and Social Media – what do they have in common?

Throughout time we have been writing, collating our thoughts onto material as a record for the future ... these were not very easy to transport nor made to last with the rampages of climatic conditions, wear and tear etc.

Medieval University class (1350s) by

Laurentius de Voltolina, on parchment

People still gathered to exchange ideas and it is surprising that so many written thoughts have remained in existence for each successive generation to read and study.

Clay tablets were replaced by papyrus scrolls, parchment was then used before the printing press (+/- 1450) with paper (pulped rags were used for 2,000 years, until the process of pulping wood fibres was developed (1844), which we mainly use today)  lowered the cost, enabling the mass exchange of information and contributing to significant cultural shifts.

Hemp Wrapping Paper, China:

circa 100 BC

All progress, George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) remarked, “depends on the unreasonable man” ... and by his own admission Michael Stern Hart (1947 – 2011) pioneer of e-books and founder of Project Gutenberg, was such a man.

Who would have thought a visit to the local shop in 1971, where he was given a free parchment copy of The Declaration of Independence, would lead to that Eureka moment, as he described it ... with Project Gutenberg being born ...

.... he had access to one of the first computers at Urbana University (a small university specialising in the liberal arts) , where his parents worked as professors of Mathematics and Shakespeare respectively; it was here that he decided to type up the Declaration of Independence to be stored online at one of the first computer nodes.

Michael Hart (L) and Gregory Newby

of Project Gutenberg, 2006

For years many people thought he was mad, as he laboriously typed up the Bible, works by Jane Austen, Plato, Shakespeare, Tolstoy ... he never finished his degree.  He sacrificed everything for his passion – he lived simply (used a bicycle with a cart), worked hard, and when he fell ill he treated himself with home remedies, rather than expensive medicines.

By 1987 he had typed out 313 “great books” – and then that shift occurred ... technology, in the shape of scanning, software, computer memory and the internet caught up with the scale of his ambition.  By June this year there were some 36,000 free electronic editions of public-domain literary works ... which as some of us can attest are a popular and convenient source of reference.

With thanks to The Week (17 September 2011) – for the Obituary on Michael Hart from which I sourced some of this information and ideas ... and then along comes another site I enjoy reading: Brain Pickings ...

... which has a fascinating post entitled: Vintage Versions of Modern Startups ... Twitter, Facebook, Quora, YouTube and Tumblr ... I so far have only checked out the Facebook one – by Stanford University ...

Twitter – 1906 Felix Fineon – Three Line Novels

c/o Brain Pickings 

Here the University is researching and pulling together a snapshot of written data using new computer technology with geographical imaging to show the various intermingling and evolvement of philosophical ideas through their epistles.

Mapping this “Republic of Letters” – the self-defined community of  writers, scholars, philosophers and other thinkers included greats like Voltaire, Leibniz, Rousseau, Linnaeus, Franklin, Newton, Diderot and many other we’ve come to see as linchpins of cultural history.

The letter writers in the era that has become known as the Age of Enlightenment (1700s) come from a vast and intricate network of intellectuals, linking their finest “philosophies” across national borders and language barriers.

Republic of Letters map

 – Stanford University

Brain Pickings has various links to the subject and a short video (2.15) entitled “Tracking 18^th Century “social network” through the Electronic Enlightenment Project” ... which shows some fascinating mapping images ... 

... while surprising the researchers that, three hundred and fifty years ago, so much information was circulating around the world ... for instance: how astronomical observations that had been written down in America or Asia could be seen to back link into Newton’s Principia ...

... another surprise shown in the video is that Voltaire communicated mainly with the southern half of Europe – whereas we might have thought that a main centre would be England and Scotland ...  but the mapping shows Voltaire’s disconnect.

Coming back to the developments of today ... the ‘anxiety’ of the loss of people being able to jot down or record ideas, compose our thoughts for our stories because we are becoming so technically oriented – which is becoming a handicap to the thought logic ...  that loss of process in working our thoughts out on paper ... the idea we wouldn’t have had if we weren’t writing.

The peace of mind in finding a pencil and paper – a napkin ... the back of an envelope – and then being able to note those thoughts down, which arose from the adolescent acceptance that we should write letters for social as well as business reasons.

Modern Book Printing –

sculpture .... commemorating

its inventor Gutenberg on

the occasion of the 2006

Football World Cup

in Germany

Stanford University highlights what we have known for years as we research the letters of the literary greats ... when we research people – we find they were writing letters everyday ... and that is calisthenics for the brain.

Thank goodness for the likes of Project Gutenberg and Wikipedia which seem to embody the mission of the early web: to serve as a kind of super-library distributing knowledge widely and freely for its own sake.

The times they are a-changing ... but it’s good to know that there are people who are still looking through the glass clearly at the value to be obtained from researching into the past as well as recording this information for us to wonder at and learn from.

What does the future hold and how will we be using technology in the years ahead – I am sure we won’t be losing our grip on all this knowledge ... but it will be the researchers, readers and writers who benefit most ... while we as bloggers and authors will be doing our bit at collating information and ideas ... now I know what my exercise is .. calisthenics!  I just need to stretch a little further ....

5 Vintage Versions of Social Media from Centuries Ago - Brain Pickings.org

The Week - UK version

Project Gutenberg ... www.gutenberg.org 

Stanford University - Republic of Letters Map and Research

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

September is the Apple, Barley and Harvest month in the northern hemisphere ...

The Harvesters (1565) oil on panel,

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Pieter Breugel the Elder (1525-1569)

Harvest time when the field crops are being gathered in, the hedgerows offering up their fill to the foragers, who will happily spend hours walking the by-ways filling their baskets with fresh delights ...  blackberries, apples, sloes, elderberries, wild plums and  more ..

... the end of summer – corn, tomatoes, squash, aubergines, carrots, cucumbers, onions, red, yellow and green peppers ... the time for pots of soup after a hard day on the land, or over a hot stove making stews, jams and jellies ...

Baked Bramley Apple, just
serve with custard or cream 

Bramley Apples, the English stalwart of a cooking apple, after peeling, are made into fruit compotes, crumbles, charlottes, dried slices, chutneys, cider making or just baked whole – cored and filled with dried fruit and a dollop of butter ... then served with cream or custard ... depending on your pocket.

In days of yore – an apple scoop was made from the shank bone of a sheep ... cut slanting and filed smooth, this makes the best apple scoop: it doesn’t rust, bend or discolour the fruit!  (I'm not very clever, so couldn't get this to swing round or get it clearer .. but you can get the gist!)

Or how about some mutton broth in which a good few windfall apples are stewed, then pressed through a strainer, season with a pinch of ginger (not pepper), salt and reheated with a handful of pearl barley, cooking until the barley is soft ... this is an excellent 1800s winter’s night soup.

Cooked Bramley apple sauce to go with roast pork, or a boned blade or shoulder of pork filled with apple and nut stuffing – apple slices can be glazed and used as an addition to meat or fish courses.

A Cornucopia
(Horn of Plenty) Corn Dolly

September is a month of both endings and new beginnings as summer fades to autumn ... we plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land ... the corn dollies, made to decorate the churches at Harvest Festival, before being buried in the Spring to ensure fertility for next year’s crop, can be made from straw wheat, rye, barley or oats ... but of the four wheat is the best.

Barley was one of the earliest domesticated grains with barley beer probably being drunk in Neolithic times.  Barley was also employed as a currency ... while in Egypt was a staple cereal where it was used to make both bread and beer.  Pliny also noted that barley was a special food of gladiators, however by Roman times wheat had replaced barley as the staple.

Pearl Barley is a great addition to those September soups, where the crock pot is filled to the brim with meats and seasonal vegetables to taste ... just add some yeasty, freshly baked harvest loaves with some butter and a pint of beer – what could be better for a weekend lunch, or an evening meal after a busy day.

This is the time for pickles and chutneys to add to a selection of harvest spreads – bread and cheese lunches or suppers, Beef and Beer casseroles, Baked Hams with various chutneys or pickles, Rarebit with Chutney Beer mustard, cheese and onion tart with caramelised red onion relish, or a cheese scone with country garden pickle ...

Everyone is busy harvesting the groaning trees, reaping the fields, picking the ripening fruits and vegetables .... turning all into food for the freezer or bottle, in the form of stewed fruit, jams, jellies, pickles and chutneys ...

 

Jan van Kessel II (1654 – 1708) in this card depicts the last days of summer - the insects flit around for the final tastings of summer, as the white and redcurrants ripen and the sprig of forget-me-knot reminds us of one of the birth flowers for September.

Thomas Hood (1799 – 1845), a British humorist and poet, wrote that the wildlife too will benefit through the coming months from the dropped seeds and berries, and those few fruits or nuts left on the bushes ...

“The squirrel gloats on his accomplished hoard,

The ants have buried their gaines with ripe grain,

      And honey bees have stores

The sweets of summer in their luscious cells,

The swallows have winged across the main!”

Canadian World War 1

poster encouraging

people to preserve

food for the winter

September that seventh month, which the Anglo-Saxons called the Gerstmonath, barley month ... and during which at our Harvest Festivals we sing in celebration:-

“We Plough the Fields and Scatter” hymn is one of the most popular in Britain and is that most commonly associated with Harvest-tide ... written by the German poet Matthias Claudius in 1782 .... then translated into English by Jane M Campbell in 1861 appearing in “A Garland of Songs”.

We thank Thee, then, O Father, for all things bright and good,
The seed time and the harvest, our life, our health, and food;
Accept the gifts we offer, for all Thy love imparts,
But what Thou most desirest, our humble, thankful hearts.

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Dead Salmon Branding ... Colours ... All Black, Red, White and Blue ...

Interesting title to a post - n’est pas?  How on earth do you brand a Dead Salmon and when does ‘Dead Salmon’ become a branding tool?  Then add in an airline, with its safety video, The Rugby World Cup, and we have branding again ...

Salmon Pieces in market

Oh life is fun – there are so many ideas out there that we can all get creative about ...  I saw an article in The Week about Farrow & Ball, a little known brand of paint that has become a cult.  

Frankly anyone who can put ‘Dead Salmon’ on our walls deserves some kind of recognition ...  or ‘Mizzle’, a mixture of mist and drizzle, or ‘Elephant’s Breath’ ... we sort of know and expect shades of greige.

Talk about adding colour to our posts, stories, books or conversations ...  ‘Charlotte’s Locks’, a striking new orange, was named after a red-headed employee, ‘Churlish Green’, ‘Porphyry Pink’ ... ‘Vert de Terre’ all found in their paint pots.

Incredible stories are buried within the archives of the organisation – they are a small, independent company based in the middle of rural Dorset, operating from a decrepit industrial estate ...  where it has been for its sixty five years of existence.

Glitz & Glamour Colour Scheme

Farrow & Ball have stuck with traditional recipes, using high levels of pigment with less water than some of its rivals.  Testing a patch – the eye can easily detect the quality paint, the real deal ... from the texture ... the chalkiness, the deep, clotted colours effecting that richness of excellence.

In the early 1990s under the ownership of a historical interior decorator and corporate financier, Farrow & Ball developed a range of paints with The National Trust that came to form the basis of its subsequent success.

We are going back to our roots for many things and restoration in traditional materials is one of the revolutions that is taking place ... thankfully, before more is torn down or destroyed, much is being researched, pared back, to uncover the truth of building fabrication underneath the layers of centuries, to then be appropriately restored.

Despite the recessions in recent years, the company has grown; a management buyout in 2006 has allowed the organisation to keep the same ethos and principles, yet progress with the times.

Salvage Colour Scheme

Dead Salmon and those names, expensive to buy ... yet you use less dead salmons than if you employed a high street paint, to achieve the higher pigment with a gorgeous finish.  

Now that to my mind is branding ... a sophisticated palette of muted colours that capture the colours of our imagination, which we would use  – when we come to paint our house ... perhaps just our front door: for the price.

You would be likely to remember the name of the company that had a customer request he be buried with a Farrow & Ball colour chart; while another wanted empty sample pots in which to put wedding favours ... wouldn’t you?

Branding with niche paint names ... and now branding through a different route ... the All Black way ...

How difficult is it to engage passengers to watch the safety video that they’ve seen time and time again ... ?  Well certainly not by dropping a video through my RSS reader that is for sure – but the idea that “You can be creative. With ANYTHING” a post by from “Being-Smarter – Build a better ConsultantBusiness” – made me scan through and find out why a safety video is an excellent branding tool.

The post by Mark Copeman is fun ... while the video is good for a few smiles, especially at the end ... who would ever have thought the Rugby World Cup would engage the world quite so much .... I’m sure this is viral – but it amuses me – and offers much.

I quote from the article:  There’s a serious point here – using just the right amount of humour really works to teach and communicate with the audience. The reason for that is simple – the audience is totally engaged with what they’re watching. It’s also not what they’re expecting – another reason why they become engaged – they’re intrigued and want to watch the story to the end.

There’s a message there somewhere!

If you’ve not seen this before – watch it and marvel. When you’ve finished watching it – figure out how you could be more creative in your consulting business to help you get noticed, to engage your customers and to make them smile.

Who says business has to be boring?!

Air NewZealand – Crazy about Rugby – Safety Video ... 

2011 BBC Great North Run across
the Tyne Bridge (Press Association)

Once you’ve had a good giggle over the video – a note of remembrance ... we had the Great North Run (half marathon) yesterday in which 54,000 runners participated supporting over 270 charities.

My colourful post for Lenny Lee, the sunshine lad, mentioned the Red Arrows – the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, which very sadly lost Flt Lt Jon Egging, one of their members a few weeks ago.

Yesterday his widow, Dr Emma Egging, ran in the half marathon in his honour, something they would have done together, after she fired the starting gun for the main race to commence.

The Red Arrows put on three fly-pasts as a tribute to Jon’s memory, and as part of their return to public performances after the recent tragedy.  Dr Egging wore the red number 4 on her vest – as Jon’s number within the Red Arrows team.

Farrow & Ball's Colour Chart

Branding Porphyry Pink, the All Blacks in mid-air together with the colourful Red Arrows seems a linking too far for a post – but the content and entertainment value enhances the mix.

PS  I shall be lurking for the next couple of weeks – to start a few projects and organise this side of my life .. I won’t be far away – so don’t do anything I wouldn’t!!

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories 

If I could be AnyOne, I’d be Mary Wollstonecraft ...

Mary Wollstonecraft by
John Opie just before she died

Why? – because in those days of long ago before she who could be anyone started a blog, when she was visiting St Pancras Workhouse she could walk through St Pancras Old Church churchyard ...  and came across the Memorial to me ... my bones have long been removed to rest in St Peter’s Churchyard, Bournemouth.

Why? was she visiting St Pancras Workhouse ... long after Workhouses went out of fashion, and I had long gone?  She was visiting her mother at the Workhouse now Hospital before her mother was relocated to Eastbourne.

St Pancras Old Church in 1815.  It was largely 

reconstructed in the 19^th Century.  The River

Fleet’s  two headwaters in Hampstead Heath flow

into the Hampstead Ponds and Highgate Ponds

before the river gets directed underground by.

So much change which she and her blogger friends are documenting in ways that Harold Godwin and I could never envisage ... bearing the Frankenstein creator was almost a baby too far ... but look what my daughter has given you – a genre within novel writing.

I did not live long (1759 – 1797) ... but over the years my writings have become appreciated and I am now regarded as being one of the founding feminist philosophers.

Life was difficult I had to give my earnings to my father, ultimately became a governess, while continuing to write – helped by friends who supported our advocation of women’s rights.

Talli
TalliMarilynstein

She saw my Memorial and my name inspired her – Wollstonecraft – and she printed out some information to read to her mother about us and the St Pancras area ...

Who is She?!

I, Mary Wollstonecraft, inspired the She who would be me, she is the author of the Positive Letters ... Inspirational Stories Blog.  I had that passion for writing I wrote to improve the rights of women and girls.

Congratulations to She who would be Marilyn for what will be a tremendous fun blogging day out ... promoting her new book out in November "Watching Willow Watts".

Talli's book The Hating Game is out now on Amazon

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Who were the English, where are they now?

Lower Manhattan in1660.  The large

structure toward the tip of the

island is Fort Amsterdam.

(North is to the right).

Having watched the Remembrance Services for 9/11 in New York and here in Grosvenor Square for those British people who lost their lives that terrible day – sharing the British service with my mother – it is yet another (last) landmark in our life together: it brings life home ... the memories that will live on.

They were poignant services as I am sure you will all agree; we then watched ‘Songs of Praise’ which covered the benefits of mixing the faiths, learning from the cultural differences through friends across the races, lots of songs with moving words – and thoughts to think about during these changing times.

The two memorials are very different – one built over the Twin Towers site itself, which has yet to be finished, and the other a garden in Grosvenor Square opposite the American Embassy ... which I look forward to visiting and being able to assimilate all the words and symbolism.

Back to who were the English ... and today who are the English?

Daniel Defoe (1660 – 1731), the English writer, journalist and pamphleteer is notable as being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, and is among the founders of the English novel as shown with the success of Robinson Crusoe.

Defoe wrote this poem to describe the English:

The Romans first with Julius Caesar came

Including all the Nations of that name

Gauls, Greeks and Lowland – and by computation

Auxiliaries or Slaves of Every Nation –

With Hengist – Saxons, Danes with Sueno came

In search of Plunder, not in search of Fame

Scot, Pict and Irish from the Hibernian Shore

And conquering William brought the Normans o’er

... From this Amphibious ill-born mob began

That vain ill-natured thing - an English man –

The customs, Surnames, languages and Manners

Of all the nations are their own Explainers

Whose relicks are so lasting and so strong

They have left a Shibboleth upon our tongue

By which, with easy search you may distinguish

Your Roman – Saxon – Danish – Norman English.

Fate jumbled them together – God knows how!

What’er they were – they’re true born English now.

Spread of  Celts in 3^rd Century BC

(Gaulish Language)

Defoe explains ... “I only infer that an Englishman, of all men, ought not to despise foreigners as such, and I think the inference is just, since what they are today, we were yesterday, and tomorrow they will be like us.  ...  and for the King(King William of the Netherlands) being a foreigner himself, I confess myself moved by it to remind our nation of their own original ... we are really all foreigners ourselves.”

So who are we now ... looking at the participants of the various services ... the Bagpipers with their kilts, together with the Pipes and Drums, in New York playing out the Flag, to the families and friends of the lost, the Colliery Brass Band, the wonderful peoples who inhabit our nations of all colours, particularly shown in today’s Songs of Praise where young people were working together to promote peace and tolerance.

Who are we now – not just the English?  We, who have explored this world ... settling here, there and everywhere ... allowing each of us to share our desire for freedom to live, thrive and build new relationships with others – throwing open our free thinking minds to explore and understand those cultural and traditional differences in the desire to live in a caring and blessed world.

Depiction of the Battle of Hastings

(1066) on the Bayeux Tapestry

Seth Godin in his post of today – lets us know that more than 42 languages are spoken at the Queens Public Library in New York ... and finishes by saying “But now more than ever, I believe we have an obligation to stand up, stand out and to do work that matters. Wherever you are, there's an opportunity to be different, with respect.”

We all have recent forbears from other parts of the UK, while some are also descended from more recent immigrants from other European countries and from around the world – these mixes, cultures and desires have been ‘exported’ – the world is one now (almost) ...

.... today – embrace and encourage all peoples and their differences ... let the 21^st century have hope.

These be a "mixed bag" of English Peoples ... can you recognise them all? 

First Row:  Alfred the Great, Oliver Cromwell, William Shakespeare, Michael Palin, Georgiana Cavendish, Walter Raleigh, Sting; 

Second Row:  Elizabeth I of England, Bobby Moore, Margaret Thatcher, David Beckham, Harold Godwinson, Kate Winslet, Charles Dickens;

Third Row: Pope Adrian IV, Daniel Craig, Isaac Newton, George Harrison, Jane Austin, Damon Albarn, George Stephenson.

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories