The griffins, all 4 of them, stand guard on the front lawn of Wallington Hall, and I should have had someone stand beside them to give a sense of size...they are about three feet high and five to six feet long. Originally they stood on Bishopsgate in the City of London and were brought to Wallington by Molly, Lady Trevelyan. She died in 1966.

Today I went to hear Freda Lightfoot talk in my local library and very interesting it was too. She actually remembered me from the Romantic Novelists Association conference in Penrith last July. I came away with her new book, out next Thursday: That'll be the Day. Evidently it is set in the 1950s and Freda told us, with a wry grin, that her publisher considers the 1950s to be "history" now!

I hear that neither Michelle, Nicola nor Anne won the RNA romance short story prize; the prize wnt to Nell Dixon for a story called Marrying Max, and published in People's Friend. Commiserations all three. I'd say congratulations Nell, but I've have not met her and she's not likely to be reading this particular blog! For me, it is one more nudge towards getting something published in People's Friend. More than one author has mentioned it over the last year or so, and certainly I see it for sale in my local Tesco superstore. Freda mentioned it today, and it has always been my view that there's no point in asking for advice if you don't then follow that advice when it is given!