On the Pennine Way near Stanbury, three miles from Haworth, stands a house with a history. A former farmhouse, Ponden Hall was occupied by the Heaton family from the mid seventeenth century until 1898. The Brontë family were neighbours. It’s said that the Brontë children liked to…
Yorkshire is a surprising place of stark contrasts. My home, the city of Leeds in West Yorkshire, was once a hub of industry including engineering and tailoring factories. Today’s emphasis is on banking, insurance, shopping and eating. Leeds is home to my detective, Kate Shackleton who trod the mean streets and…
Last weekend I had the pleasure of staying in Dinan, a medieval walled town in Brittany, France, during the biennial medieval festival. Having hired a costume from the West Yorkshire Playhouse wardrobe department (what a fabulous selection) I was able to enter into the spirit of the celebrations. The small…
This year marks the four hundredth anniversary of the trial, at Lancaster Assizes, and the execution by hanging of the Pendle witches. Like many writers I was inspired by this story and it formed the subject of my first BBC radio play. My fascination with the story began when I…
