My Tuesday Talk Guest: Margaret Skea

I invited Margaret to join my Tuesday Talk spot and she decided to talk about Escaping to the Country - a subject close to my heart seeing as I did just that back in mid-January via the BBC TV house-finder show of the same name!

( see details on my Devon Diary )

So, please welcome Margaret Skea: 

Escape to the Country – then and now…

I have to confess to a mild (my husband would say serious) and long-standing addiction to house programmes on the TV – buying houses, selling houses, renovating houses…even cleaning houses. If a programme has a house as its focus, I’m your man. (Woman actually, but let’s not quibble.)

And with apologies to non-UK readers – a little nostalgia here  – Who remembers the excesses of ‘Changing Rooms’ or the fun of watching wannabee property developers making mistakes on Sarah Beeny’s ‘Property Ladder’?

For the record I once applied to be on Property Ladder, and got as far as being invited to send in photos / details of the renovation project, but to my husband’s great relief a similar project had just been accepted and so I was turned down.  It didn’t dampen my enthusiasm though and my ‘house’ addiction is now fed by watching as many airings of ‘Grand Designs’ as possible (mostly re-runs) and, my latest ‘fix’, all episodes of  ‘Escape to the Country.’

For the latter I blame mine host, Helen, for although I tell myself that they are very educational, and my knowledge of the geography of the south of England is certainly improving, it is Helen’s appearance I’m watching for, oh, and the landscape and the many and varied houses…

(Helen: I've been told that our episode will be the last one of Series 13 - watch my Devon Diary or News Blogfor details!)

Having now watched oodles of episodes  (yes, I admit it, I would be hooked, with or without Helen’s imminent appearance) there is a recurring thread that runs through most of the programmes. – Most folk looking to relocate seem to want a property with ‘period features’. But not too authentic – for, along with the desire for the period feel, is usually an equally strong preference for every modern convenience. And who can blame them? A medieval hall house may sound romantic, but how many of us would want to live with a central fire and no chimney to take away the smoke?

Or an outside earth closet in lieu of a toilet? Not me!  

(Helen: mind you, a cess pit - like what we have - comes a close second!)

Interesting though to see how medieval house-styling is still echoed in new-build England today.  Compare developments of ‘mock-Tudor’ housing with the originals and externally, at least, the derivation is clear.

If you dislike ‘mock’ anything, and you have plenty of money to spend, it is possible to re-create the real thing - there are specialist firms who will supply and erect an oak frame, using very similar techniques to those used in Tudor times.

The current trend for open plan living certainly lends itself to that style of house.

I have to admit here to a closet desire to live in an oak-framed house, a dream I’m unlikely to fulfil, for though these houses, both the original properties and the modern re-creations, are undoubtedly beautiful, they would look entirely out of place where I stay in the Scottish Borders.

Why most people would feel that way is an interesting issue – for modern architecture is much less location specific. Perhaps it is an instinctive appreciation that style of housing is part of our historical landscape, and often in earlier times directly reflected the physical environment; for example, the honey-coloured Cotswold stone, the flint houses of Essex and the thatched cottages of Devon - all of which owe their predominance to the convenience and local availability of the materials concerned, in a way that 21^st century building doesn’t.  And therein lies their charm.

Why isn’t the Scottish Borders peppered with half-timbered houses? It can’t be explained by a lack of materials, for Scotland was just as heavily wooded in the 15^th and 16^th centuries as England, perhaps more so. The answer lies not in the landscape but in lifestyle.

  

While a Kentish farmer was enjoying the relative comfort of nestling securely in the surrounding farmland, his Scottish social equivalent was keeping fit on the spiral staircase of his gaunt and forbidding tower house, built primarily with defense in mind.

A reflection of the widespread lawlessness of Scottish society at this time. 

So no timber-framed ‘hall-style’ house for me then.

If you think renovation is a modern concept think again. The island of Bute on the west coast of Scotland boasts one of the most amazing restoration projects I have ever seen. Mount Stuart House was transformed from this:

to this:

Well worth a visit, with ‘wow’ factors galore, from the overall magnificence (decadence?) of the interior to the detail of the decorated brass door hinges, individually designed according to the purpose of the room in which they are used!

But now, as then, if you have enough money you can build almost anything, anywhere. 

Right?

Right. 

Apart from the restrictions placed by the planning authorities of course.

Are planning regulations a new thing? Yes and no. Aside from national regulations, we have conservation areas in towns and cities, and national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty in the countryside, all of which place specific restrictions on the extent and style of building allowed within them. Along with mountains of paperwork to be waded through in order to understand the restrictions or to make an application.

It was much simpler in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, but by no means a free-for-all.   Consider the 1589 ‘Act against the erecting and maintaining cottages’, which stated:

        ‘ no person shall within this realm … make, build and erect, or cause to be made, built or erected, any manner of cottage for habitation or dwelling, nor convert or ordain any building or housing made or hereafter to be made or used as a cottage for habitation or dwelling, unless the same person do assign and lay to the same cottage or building four acres of ground at the least, to be accounted according to the statute or ordinance De terris mensurandis being his or her own freehold and inheritance lying near to the said cottage, to be continually occupied and manured therewith so long as the same cottage shall be inhabited’

Hmm – 4 acres…and as for the manuring… 

But regulations are made to be broken, and illegal building of cottages on common ground was rife. It was however possible, but by no means certain, to obtain retrospective permission, usually by payment of a fine. (The equivalent of a modern-day ‘sweetener’ perhaps?)

Poplar Cottage, now re-erected in the Weald and Downland museum, but originally sited in West Sussex, is thought to be one such illegal or ‘wasteland’ cottage, the owner of which must at some stage have received a ‘licence to remain’.

As it happens, I wrote a short story last year called ‘The Price of Poplar Cottage ' speculating on the means used to gain that permission, which will be published in a forthcoming Historical Novel Society anthology.

Is ‘escaping to the country’ a modern concept? Not really – (seriously) wealthy folk in Tudor London also prized their country estates, enabling them to escape from the city when the weather, or disease, or political difficulties dictated.

The TV show ‘Escape to the Country’ is somewhat different. Not featuring temporary escapes to country estates by the privileged, but folk like me (well, ok, maybe a teensy bit better-off than me) making a permanent move; choosing, not just a beautiful part of the country to live in, but often also a different pace and way of life.

May they all enjoy it!

Margaret Skea is an award-winning writer, who’s debut novel, Turn of the Tide, the Historical Fiction Winner in the 2011 Harper Collins People’s Novelist competition, was published in November 2012 by Capercaillie Books. 

It is available in good bookshops in the UK and online

Visit her on her Website

or on FaceBook

Helen: Thank you Margaret - that was really interesting! For anyone who doesn't know, following an unexpected windfall my family decided, unanimously, to escape from London and move with our pets and horses to Devon - looking for a period property with character which had land and stables. (and turned out to also have original oak beams and a 3 foot thick outer wall!)

Being let down once or twice I applied to the TV show pleading" "Please help! We've tried tunnelling our way out of London but or spade has broken!"

We were accepted for the last show being filmed in series thirteen and my daughter and I were whisked off to North Devon. ...

We were shown this: 

 ...and promptly fell in love with it.

We moved in, however, on a day in January when it looked like this...

True escapism.
The view of the Taw Valley from my bedroom window
 one misty morning

Next week: writer Cynthia Haggard will have an article of interest to share

The Great Debate: Indie v Mainstream?

 by Margaret Skea

Put a group of fledging or would-be [Helen: or even established!] authors together and the Indie v Mainstream debate is almost guaranteed to be part of the conversation. It’s a hot topic and there are probably as many different opinions as there are folk to discuss it. Which is a roundabout way of saying that what follows is only my opinion, but based on experience of both sides of the ‘fence’. 

It went like this. 

1) I wrote a novel. 

2) I dreamt of having it published…becoming a best-seller…a Holywood blockbuster…(well maybe not quite that, but you get the idea).

3) I queried agents and, like most would-be authors, began collecting rejection slips. Not enough to paper the walls, but enough to be dispiriting. 

Enter Harper Collins and Alan Titchmarsh and the chance to submit my novel in their joint competition for unpublished novelists. 

After I won the Historical Fiction section of that competition I’d thought I’d have no trouble in finding an agent, especially when recommended by a Harper Collins editor – right? 

Wrong. 

My second agent trail was no more successful than the first – they could see why I won the competition and liked (and in some cases loved) my writing, but no-one could see it selling to other than a Scottish publisher and in the words of one agent ‘That makes it uneconomic to sell on your behalf.’ There were two other problems – my main character wasn’t female – a male lead was a much harder sell, aside from the ‘swords and sandals’ – type books, which mine wasn’t, and (perhaps most bizarre of all) it was ‘too well written to be truly commercial’. 

I decided to go it alone. No, not the Indie route, though I did consider that (who wouldn’t?) but I didn’t feel confident that I had the technical skills to negotiate all the potential pitfalls and make a good job of it. (Nor the money to pay for good professional help). Instead I decided to approach publishers direct. Now in the UK you’re not really supposed to do that, but I did have a cunning plan. 

I wrote a three sentence email query to five publishers: introducing me, the book and the competition win, offered to send sample chapters and pasted the first page of the novel into the body of the email, reckoning that while they likely wouldn’t open an attachment, curiousity would probably ensure that they scrolled down the page.  

Net result: four requests for sample chapters, closely followed by three requests for the full manuscript and one (imagine me hyper-ventilating here) offer to publish based on the three chapters alone. In the end, after considering two offers and swithering about waiting to hear from the other two publishers, I decided on the ‘bird in the hand basis’ to take the first one. – The contract was signed before they read the full thing and I had a few restless nights hoping they when they did they wouldn’t change their mind! I’m pretty sure that my appearances on the AT Show had a lot to do with it, even if I did feel like a rabbit caught in car headlights while it was being filmed. And for the record Alan T. is as lovely as you might imagine him to be – generous, encouraging and kind.

The real excitement began when my ten copies of the paperback arrived, courtesy, as I thought, of the publisher. (It turns out the printer supplies 10 free copies as a matter of course.) The launch in Waterstones in Edinburgh was exciting too, as was signing oodles of books, and the incredible sense of achievement that I’d bagged that elusive mainstream deal. 

Launch of Turn of the Tide at Waterstones.

So far, so good. My first print review – in Scottish Field Magazine – was mercifully positive and the paperbacks were selling – slowly, but still. And to see a bookshop window full of my book was amazing. 

There are many positives in the mainstream route: in-built credibility, all the expenses of publication covered by the publisher, particularly a print run, and immediate eligibility for professional bodies such as the Society of Authors and also, in my case, the Historical Writers Association.

Masons of Melrose

There are also negatives: lack of control, especially of marketing, and no direct inter-face with Amazon; little knowledge of how book sales are going aside from the (once or twice a year) royalties statement; and of course the economics of it all – once I’d earned out my advance I received the princely sums of £0.89 for every paperback sold and £0.29 for every ebook. I understand the economics of the paperback production and don’t actually begrudge the publisher their whack for that, but the ebook? £0.29 – really? 

Writing colleagues who had self-published knew exactly how their books were doing, had the freedom to market as they pleased, and significantly increased royalties. 

Fast forward to early this year and my (one year late) completion of A House Divided, the sequel to Turn of the Tide. I contacted the publisher, who had an option on it, to discover that in the meantime they had bought over another publishing house and were up to their eyes with books in the pipeline, so that it was unlikely there’d be any chance of publication before 2017, and even that wasn’t guaranteed. 

In the circumstances it wasn’t a hard decision to re-invest money made from the first book and self-publish the second, and in effect become a ‘hybrid’ author – with a foot in both camps. What was hard was deciding exactly how. Print run v POD? Doing the editing / cover design / formatting etc myself, or contracting it out? Using a firm who would look after everything, or individually arranging the professional services required?

In the end I decided 

1) to set up a publishing imprint

2) to do a print run (1000 copies)

3) to oversee the whole process myself, but to buy in services as needed. 

I was fortunate, and was able to contract the same cover designer and printer that the publisher had used for the first book, thus ensuring a good physical ‘match’ between the two. I then negotiated an agreement with the current distributor of Turn of the Tide that they would take on A House Divided, which I hoped would solve the problem of how to get it into bookshops. And finally I found a copy-editor (worth his weight in gold) and a formatter to prepare the ms for both print and e-versions, and I set the publication date – 15th October. And when two mainstream bookshops offered to host a launch, I accepted both – one in Edinburgh and one in my local area.

Five and a half months seemed ample time to get everything done, but on reflection another six –eight weeks would have taken a lot of the stress out of the process – but I got there in the end – just. The printer, distributor and bookshop were all quite relaxed, but if the stories of sending a taxi from Edinburgh to London to pick up needed books were intended to calm me down, they failed miserably. And in the middle of all the organizing I made another, momentous, decision – to negotiate back the rights to the first book. So with two weeks to go until launch day I became a fully-fledged member of the Indie community. And with just three days to go, the physical copies of the new novel arrived, and to my great relief were exactly what I’d hoped for. 

Eight weeks into my new life as a ‘publisher’ things seem to be going well – A House Divided has been reviewed in a national newspaper - not a ‘luvvie’ but some complementary comments, with no significant negatives, and it’s been chosen for a Reading Agency promotion. The award of an Hawthornden Writing Fellowship  2016 came at just the right time, resulting in two full-page feature articles in different local newspapers, which has all helped in promotional terms and I have to admit to being quietly optimistic. 

Am I glad I made the shift ? – Definitely. Would I ever go back to a mainstream publisher?  Possibly, but the deal would need to be very tempting. In the meantime I’m enjoying being in control and delighted to have that most tricky of off-spring – a second book – under my belt.

Time to start the third.

I love my new logo and am looking forward to the time when all the physical copies will proudly display it.     

     

And finally, thank you  to Helen for inviting me onto her blog, and to all those who helped make my new venture possible. 

[Helen: you're welcome Margaret!]

Latest - Awarded an Hawthornden Fellowship for 2016.

Turn of the Tide: Winner of the Beryl Bainbridge Best First Time Author Award  

Sequel - A House Divided -  published 15th October 2015

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Visit my webpage: www.margaretskea.com
Join Margaret on Facebook

Previous Post - click here  5th / 6th January 1066 

A Sailor’s Life For Me – at least until Dinner is Served

As part of the Summer Banquet Blog Hop - here is my contribution to a festival of feasting:

Many of us like a good pirate yarn story. I wrote my Sea Witch Voyages because I wanted to produce something that was fun to research, write – and read. The stories are pirate-based historical adventure with a touch of fantasy – and I think (hope!) readers are enjoying the on-going escapades of my hero, Captain Jesamiah Acorne.

One area of interest that I came across while researching the background historical facts was the food  served aboard ship. The provisions for sailors during the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century was, in general, far better than their land-counterparts in the army. Royal Navy ships were provisioned quite well – but long voyages, the lack of refrigeration and poor storage conditions took their toll on the quality of the  food. It was all very well having butter, flour and meat stored in barrels in the hold, but heat, rats and weevils soon put paid to any notion of freshness.

These provisions included everything that was needed (especially when you consider that most voyages lasted at least a month – often a lot longer!). Water, food, clothing, candles, oil. Spare sails, spars, rope and nails. Tar, gunpowder, shot, medical supplies… All had to be loaded aboard and stored, and keep in mind these ships were not the great ocean-going liners of today space-wise!

Preventing food from going bad was a constant problem, so food that was salted or dried was a preference: salted pork, dried or salted fish, hard-tack - ship’s biscuit – and grain such as oats, barley and cornmeal. Cheese was part of the staple ship-board diet, while drinks included wine, rum and ‘grog’, which was watered-down rum. Water, of course, was also stored, although it soon went green and slimy.

Hard-tack was a sort of biscuit- (cookie) shaped bread, which was baked rock hard and therefore difficult to eat. Sailors sucked it or dunked it in their grog or the fatty gravy of their meals.

Before eating, however, it was wise to tap it on the table to knock the infested weevils out of it. On the other hand, any creepy-crawly was an extra bit of fresh meat!

Hard Tack

Fresh food, such as vegetables and fruit were hard to keep on board and many sailors suffered from a disease called scurvy.   It caused joints to ache and swell, gums to bleed, teeth to fall out - and death.

During the 18th century, scurvy killed more British sailors than enemy action. One report by the Royal Navy was that 184,899 sailors were conscripted and  133,708 died of disease – scurvy being the principal cause.

It was understood that fresh fruit would prevent the disease, but the difficulty came in keeping the fruit fresh. In 1740 lemon or more usually, lime juice was added to the daily ration of watered-down rum (grog)  to eliminate  the water's foulness. Admiral Edward Vernon's sailors were healthier than the rest of the navy, due to the daily dose of vitamin C.

It was not until 1747 that  James Lind proved that scurvy could be treated and prevented by supplementing the diet with citrus fruit. For this reason, British sailors were called Limeys and German sailors, who ate plenty of sauerkraut became Krauts.

James Cook circumnavigated the world (1768–71) without losing a single man to scurvy, but the shipboard diet, which included sauerkraut, was of limited value. Sauerkraut was the only vegetable food that retained a reasonable amount of ascorbic acid in its pickled form, but it was boiled to reduce it for preservation and much of the vitamin C content was therefore lost. 

The ship's cook was often selected from wounded or maimed seamen who were therefore unfit for other duties. Long John Silver in Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, as example. In the early days of explorers such as Magellan and Columbus, food was cooked 'barbecue' style on the open deck, but by the early 1800’s in Nelson's time, a ship had a kitchen area known as the 'galley', where the food was prepared by the ship's cook and hot meals were provided for the entire crew - which could be over 900 men and officers.

where the men ate

During action or rough weather the galley fire was put out which meant that it could be some hours - or even days - before another hot meal could be cooked.

Captain's Table

The men ate in a mess group of 8-12, with each man taking his turn as 'mess cook' responsible for collecting the day's rations from the hold and taking it to be prepared for the noon-time meal. The Mess Cook was also to wash the utensils and clean up afterwards - for reward he was entitled to an extra ration of rum (hmm, I'll remember that next time I have to do the washing up!)

Captain's Table, from the movie Master & Commander

And the phrase “A square meal”?

Square wooden trencher plates were used on-board as they didn't slide around as easily as circular plates. Sailors  would have looked forward to their square meal.

Rations per week per man, according to Navy Regulations of 1818 included:

1 gallon Beer

1 pt Wine (Watered 7:1)

2 lb Beef

1 lb Suet 

or 1½ lbs of Flour + 4 ozs of Suet 

or 1½ lbs of Flour + 4 ozs of Raisins + 2 ozs of Suet

1 lb of Bread

2 lbs of Potatoes or Yams

1 pt of Oatmeal 

½ Rice 

or ½ lb of Stockfish 

or 1 pt of Wheat 

2 ozs of Butter

2 ozs of Oil

In the event that neither the standard ration nor an equivalent were available then the ration would be reduced and a  'Short Ration Allowance'  paid in addition to the seaman’s wages.

All members of the crew were able, where practical, to purchase extra provisions at their own expense, and many officers did just that – officers (as always, of course) ate with more enjoyment than the simple foremast jack.

You’ll find a couple of interesting recipes suitable for sending to sea with your beloved on the Historical Maritime Society’s webpage

and some interesting information about life aboard ship on author Julian Stockwin's nautical website

Some other interesting snippets :

Ever wondered why coffee is an all-American favourite, while tea is for us Brits?

Prior to the American War of Independence (and the famous Boston Tea Party) tea was a common drink in the American Colonies – but the British Government taxed tea heavily. This led to the commodity being highly prized as smuggled goods, but again the British Government intervened by sending the Royal Navy to intercept the smugglers. One of the most successful Navy Ships was HMS Rose – the replica of which is now moored at San Diego and is more widely known as HMS Surprise of novel and movie fame.  (And the ship I base my Sea Witch on).

With the tea smuggling trade almost closed down, the Colonists retaliated by refusing to drink tea – and switched to untaxed coffee instead.

***

The early English settlers who landed in Virginia almost starved to death because their crops failed – little did they realise that the highly nutritious, and now luxury food, lobster, abounded in the clear waters of the Chesapeake Bay.

Visit Helen's website

Follow the Summer Banquet for the next delicious course! (note from 2018: some links may no longerbe active)

1. Random Bits of Fascination (Maria Grace)
2. Pillings Writing Corner (David Pilling)
3. Anna Belfrage
4. Debra Brown
5. Lauren Gilbert
6. Gillian Bagwell
7. Julie K. Rose
8. Donna Russo Morin
9. Regina Jeffers
10. Shauna Roberts
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12. Grace Elliot
13. Diane Scott Lewis
14. Ginger Myrick
15. Helen Hollick
16. Heather Domin
17. Margaret Skea
18. Yves Fey
19. JL Oakley
20. Shannon Winslow
21. Evangeline Holland
22. Cora Lee
23. Laura Purcell
24. P. O. Dixon
25. E.M. Powell
26. Sharon Lathan
27. Sally Smith O’Rourke
28. Allison Bruning
29. Violet Bedford
30. Sue Millard
31. Kim Rendfeld

thank you for visiting!

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

My thanks to Seymour Hamilton  Facebook Link  for the following interesting information:

"I just visited your blog on food in RN ships in the days of sail. A footnote: Captain Cook recorded in his log that when he got to the Haida Gwai (which used to be called the Queen Charlotte Islands) he landed and made spruce beer for the health of his crew. How he knew that spruce had long been used by native people throughout Canada as a source of Vitamin C, I don't know. My information comes from my father, who commanded a Canadian Navy frigate in the late 50s, and who travelled up and down the West Coast with a copy of Cook's log open beside him. Incidentally, he told me that the modern charts he used had undergone only minor corrections since Cook first surveyed the coastline."