PILGRIM FOOTPRINTS on the Sands of Time

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I created them, moulded them, gave them different personalities, then nursed them for nearly seven years. Through many character changes and remodelling, and planning their fate, I finally had to let them go and allow them to stand on their own.

Go well dear William and Alicia, James and Robert, Jane, Arthur and Gwen, Maria and Leonard - and most of all dear little Amy. Your pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in now written on the sands of time.

All characters from my first historical novel - now out there, alone - available on Amazon as a Kindle book. Go well my friends!!

http://www.amazon.com/Pilgrim-Footprint ... 069&sr=8-9

 

[sillydoll]

You don't need a Kindle to read the book. The new Kindle app allows PC, Mackintosh, i-Pad i-Pod, BB, Android.
Look on amazon.com for it.

 

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The Medieval Gallery in the Museum of London has on display a small, medieval pewter scallop shell brooch with Saint James as a pilgrim moulded on the front. It was recovered from the River Thames near the London Bridge in the 1990’s during routine dredging operations. In 2001 I ordered a replica of the brooch from the CSJ in the UK . When I first saw it, I wondered how such a precious and valuable souvenir, proof of a pilgrims long journey from England to Santiago, had ended up in the river. Why had the pilgrim made the long and dangerous journey and what made the pilgrim throw it in the river?

I decided that I could write a story to explain how it got there! In 2004, after three years of research I walked from Paris to Spain to do research for the book. I don't read Spanish so resources were limited but I bought a dozen books on the medieval pilgrimage and two books in particular were invaluable to my research. 'The Pilgrim's Guide to Santiago de Compostela' by Annie-Shaver-Crandell and Paula Gerson (1995) is a 400 page gazetteer that records every monument, bridge, church, cathedral or castle on the roads in France and Spain as described in the Liber Sant Jacobe, even those that no longer exist. Thanks to this book, my characters stay in 'real' monasteries, hospices and castles (some that were destroyed hundreds of years ago).

The other book is Constance Mary Storrs book, "Jacobean pilgrims from England to St James of Compostela from the early 12th to the late 15th century (1994), a veritable treasure trove of information on medieval pilgrims, their motives, preparation, hazards faced and homecomings. I know that I could not have written this story without these two books and I could not have written this story 10 years earlier as the resources I needed (in English) had not yet been written!

So, how did the Santiago brooch end up in the River Thames? Well, you'll have to read the book to find out!

"Pilgrim Footprints on the Sands of Time " (available in Kindle) will soon be available in print with a brand new cover design, thanks to Babette and Paul from Pilgrimage Publications.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/2917183349/?tag=casaivar02-20

 

[sillydoll]

This is the banner for the Virtual Book Tour for PILGRIM FOOTPRINTS on the Sands of Time.
A historical novel about pilgrims from England to Santiago in the 12th century.