• The Tom Walsingham Mysteries
  • Clara who?
  • Stories
  • Contact

Scribblings

~ Clara Giuliani, storyteller

Scribblings

Author Archives: la Clarina

Tom Walsingham is back!

23 Thursday Feb 2023

Posted by la Clarina in Books, History, Stories

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Historical fiction, historical mystery, Preorder, Sapere Books, The Tom Walsingham Mysteries

Or very nearly: Death in Rheims, his third adventure, is up for preorder on Amazon, and will be available on 26 May! Continue reading →

January Blues

12 Thursday Jan 2023

Posted by la Clarina in Things

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

beginnings, January, new year, resolutions

I’ve been neglecting my blogs in the most dreadful manner, lately. Can it be that I haven’t posted in five weeks? That I’ve even forgone the customary Christmas wishes? Oh dear me! The fact is, December was the tiniest tad intense – what with A Christmas Carol and handing in Tom Walsingham’s Book 3…

Then Christmas came – and then… January.

Because, really – I don’t know about you, but I rather loathe January… Continue reading →

Guest-posting at The Writing Desk

24 Thursday Nov 2022

Posted by la Clarina in Books, History, Stories

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

A Treasonous Path, guest post, The Writing Desk, Tom Walsingham, Tony Riches

Tony Riches is the author of of a number of richly researched, wonderfully vivid historical novels about several remarkable Tudor figures (and a few not-Tudor ones). Continue reading →

The kids

17 Thursday Nov 2022

Posted by la Clarina in Theatre, Things

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

drama classes, Nellie Bly, School play, schoolchildren

They are about fourteen, a baker’s dozen of them or so, and ever so slightly miffed, because they had to give up an hour of sports to have me talk to them. The fact is, they are taking extra-curricular drama classes this year, and they’ll be staging a shortened version of my own Nellie Bly play at the end – so the teachers thought it a good idea to have the author discuss the play with the class. Continue reading →

All those words!

10 Thursday Nov 2022

Posted by la Clarina in Scribbling, Things

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Historical fiction, Historical Thesaurus of English, Language, University of Glasgow

Among the many wonders of the Internet, there is the huge abundance of dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses, lexicons, and such-like beautiful things.

I’ve always loved dictionaries of all sorts, old and new, and own shelves of them, and since a young age I’ve been known to ask Saint Lucia for the occasional dictionary as a gift… Apart from the obvious use, I just love to get lost among those columns of words, to make discoveries, to go on treasure hunts, to chase the elusive nuance of a meaning… Continue reading →

One of those weeks…

03 Thursday Nov 2022

Posted by la Clarina in Theatre

≈ 2 Comments

You can see me here in the green room, wearing my Suez costume. The copper water-vessel weighs a ton.

Well yes – the last week or so has been… busy. About A Treasonous Path you know already, but there was also a lot of stage work.

Over the weekend, I’ve covered up for a member of the Crowds in our version of Around the World in 80 Days – my own translation and adaptation, and a jolly, colourful, bustling show, with 24 people onstage, which, in our Tiny Theatre, is no mean feat in itself… Continue reading →

Tom Walsingham’s Book 3 is out!

30 Sunday Oct 2022

Posted by la Clarina in Books, History, Stories

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Historical fiction, historical mystery, Sapere Books, Thomas Walsingham, Tudor fictiony

So here it is: A Treasonous Path, Tom’s second adventure in espionage and sleuthing, is out both as a Kindle ebook and a paperback! As usual, the lovely people at Sapere Books have done a great work: I love it all!

And what does Tom deal with, this time?

  • A mysterious informant from the French Embassy (mysterious as in “won’t tell us his  real name”…);
  • An awfully hot summer;
  • Murder, of course – and not just one;
  • A few temperamental Scots;
  • A traffic of forbidden books;
  • Fencing masters and eccentric philosophers – all of them from Italy, all of them of unknown trustworthiness;
  • A plot against the Queen;
  • An enigmatic woman;
  • His own family;
  • Fanatics from all over Europe;
  • Midnight visitors;
  • Grumbling underlings;
  • …

Are you curious yet? You can find A Treasonous Path – ebook or paperbachk – here.

 

A Treasonous Path… almost!

20 Thursday Oct 2022

Posted by la Clarina in Books, History, Stories

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

historical mystery, historical novel, Preorder, publication, Sapere Books, Sir Francis Walsingham, The Tom Walsingham Mysteries

Tom gave a last, narrow-eyed frown at the letter’s signature — a false name, since no “Henry Fagot” resided with the French Ambassador, Monsieur de Castelnau at Salisbury Court. But then, the whole matter was a rigmarole: a mysterious informant writing his letters in bad French, and hiding them in an Italian fencing-master’s hat. Almost too fanciful to be true — and yet…

This was the third time, since returning from France late in May, that Tom had been summoned to the wood-panelled study, and set to read this fellow Fagot’s papers, and then made to unpick their meaning under his great cousin’s Sphinx-like scrutiny.

“So, Thomas?”

Tom took a good deep breath and straightened away from the windowsill. “So the French Ambassador’s servants are smuggling in Catholic books, but that is more an embarrassment than anything else,” he said — slow and considering. “Either this Henry Fagot is not very good at telling what is important, or he has a grudge against the Ambassador’s butler and cook…”

Publication day for Book Two of Tom Walsingham’s adventures in espionage and sleuthing is little more than a week away… Continue reading →

One Johnson, a player…

13 Thursday Oct 2022

Posted by la Clarina in History, Stories

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Douai Diaries, English College Reims, History, primary sources, Tom Walsingham Mysteries, William Allen

This one comes from the Douai Diaries – the rather miscellaneous manuscript books chronicling, mostly in Latin, the day-to-day life, struggles and correspondence of William Allen’s band of English Catholics exiled in France. Allen built an English college in Douai, first – and when he was thrown out of what was, back then, Hapsburg land, moved the whole establishment to Reims, where it remained from 1578 to 1593. There he continued to instruct and ordain Catholic priests to send back in England as missionaries. A good deal of martyrs, plotters and fanatics passed through the colleges of both Douai and Reims… Continue reading →

A small catalogue of things we’d do without

06 Thursday Oct 2022

Posted by la Clarina in Theatre

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Covid-19, debut, theatre

This is a landslide

Miss Imogen Ralph has the plague;

Miss Imogen Ralph’s understudy (who also sells oranges in Suez) has the plague;

The slipper-seller of Kholby has the plague; Continue reading →

← Older posts

Seek and Find

♠ THE TOM WALSINGHAM MYSTERIES

Available on Amazon
Available on Amazon

The Copperfield Review’s first anthology – containing Gentleman in Velvet

Recent Posts

  • Tom Walsingham is back!
  • January Blues
  • Guest-posting at The Writing Desk
  • The kids
  • All those words!

Popular Scribblings

  • Tableaux Vivants
  • The Tale of the Trunk-Hose
  • Antonia Forest: The other Player's Boy
  • Infinite riches in a little room
  • Clara who?
  • Stories

Categories

  • Books
  • Eccentricities
  • History
  • Lostintranslation
  • Poetry
  • Scribbling
  • Silents
  • Stories
  • Theatre
  • Things
  • Uncategorized

Enter your email address to get a messenger on horseback... er, an email will reach you by email when a new Scribbling is out.

Join 1,696 other subscribers

RSS Feeds

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

No Blog’s an Island

Sapere Books

 

IBA

International Bloggers' Association

I tweet on Twitter

And I pin on Pinterest

Senza Errori di Stumpa – my Italian blog

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Scribblings
    • Join 310 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Scribblings
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...