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Penny Hampson

A Trip to Yorkshire, The White Rose County: Part Two

August 8th, 2025

Thank you for joining me on the second part of my trip to Yorkshire, the White rose county. You can read about the first part of my trip here. Having completed our three day stay in York, husband and I travelled north to Pickering, a small market town on the border of the North York […]

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My Trip to Yorkshire: The White Rose County

July 31st, 2025

Earlier this month, husband and I spent several days in Yorkshire, the white rose county; so called because a white rose has been the symbol for Yorkshire since the War of the Roses in the 15th century. Our first destination was York itself, a beautiful historic city. The last time I’d visited was back in […]

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Walking London – Hidden Gems

May 11th, 2025

Believe it or not, London is a walkable city; don’t be fooled by maps of the Underground that give the impression that the distances between many places are too far to travel on foot. On our recent trip there, husband and I decided that walking London would be the way to discover hidden gems. We […]

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A Flying Visit to Liverpool

January 19th, 2025

Shortly after Christmas I paid a flying visit to Liverpool, a place I’ve not explored in a very long time. It was a city I used to know well, having been born there and living there until my early twenties. All I can say is that in the intervening years it has changed a lot. […]

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A Winter’s Romance: A Regency Anthology

September 9th, 2024

I’m delighted to announce that A Winter’s Romance, an anthology of short stories all set in the Regency period, is now up for pre-order on Amazon. My story, ‘A Christmas Wish’ is included. Set in Bath, ‘A Christmas Wish’ tells the story of Jane Mortimer and Nicholas Anstruther. They have their ‘meet cute’ on Milsom […]

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Two Historic Libraries: An Evening Tour in Oxford

September 2nd, 2024

A couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate to secure a place on an evening tour of the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford. Just off the High Street, it is one of the iconic buildings that form part of the University of Oxford. Built in 1737–49 to a design by James Gibb, it was originally intended […]

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Feeling Peckish? Eating Out in the Regency Period

June 11th, 2024

My previous post was about private dining. Now it’s time to explore the subject of eating out in the Regency period. Where did people find something to eat if they were not at home? Believe it or not, there was a version of a good food guide to dining out in London during this period. […]

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Food Glorious Food: John Simpson, Regency Cook to the Nobility

May 19th, 2024

As an author of Regency novels, I consult a lot of 19th century sources to ensure that the details of my stories are accurate for the period. Naturally, not everything ends up in my stories – that would be far too boring for my readers – so I enjoy posting snippets of interesting facts here […]

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Escaping the Guillotine: French Émigrés in England

April 30th, 2024

Gabrielle, the heroine of my forthcoming Regency novel, An Adventurer’s Contract, is a French émigrée living in London. The inspiration for her story was an article that appeared in the February edition of The Monthly Magazine for 1810. You can read my post about it here. The article set me thinking about what life must […]

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