Emily Organ Writer

2 weeks 1 day ago

Here's the cover for Penny Green 9! It will be out next month and I'll let you know pre-order details and publication date as soon as I know them. I'm working on Churchill & Pemberley 4 so will keep you updated with that too 😃

Emily Organ Writer

3 weeks 1 day ago

I'll have more news on Penny Green 9 very soon! In the meantime here's an important location in the book - St Giles Cripplegate. It has a long and fascinating history. Cripplegate was the name of one of the Roman gates into the City of London and a fragment of the Roman wall still stands close by to the church. Its original name was St Giles-without-Cripplegate because it stood outside the city walls. There was a Saxon church on this site in the 11th century and the Normans soon replaced it with their own version. It was rebuilt in its current Gothic style in the 14th century and the tower was added in the 17th century. Oliver Cromwell was married here in 1620 and John Milton was buried here in 1674. Although the church survived the Great Fire of London in 1666, it was damaged during the Blitz in WWII. The area of Cripplegate around it was decimated and much of the area is now covered by the Barbican development which was built in the 1960s-80s. This part of London has changed dramatically over the centuries but the church still stands. It was restored in 1966 and now sits in…

Emily Organ Writer

1 month 2 weeks ago

Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed the holidays! I had a bit of a break and I'm now catching up with your messages. I was going to post this location from PG9 a week or two ago but decided that it wasn't very festive! So here's something fascinatingly morbid for the New Year 😂 I mentioned Wapping in a recent post and it was once the location for Execution Dock where pirates were hanged. 🏴‍☠️ Their bodies would remain in place until three tides had washed over them and the remains of the particularly troublesome ones were then tarred and hung in cages at Blackwall Point (where the O2 Arena now stands) as a warning to others.☠️ The last pirate hangings took place in 1830 and since then the exact location of Execution Dock on Wapping’s riverfront has been lost. For good measure though, a replica gallows stands in the riverbank by the Prospect of Whitby pub.

Emily Organ Writer

2 months 1 week ago

PG9 has a river theme, which can only mean an interesting river location or two! 😃 The Thames River Police was founded in 1798 to tackle thefts from ships in the Port of London. The force was based at Wapping Police Station on the banks of the river and - incredibly - it still is today! I haven’t yet found another police station in London which has been in continuous use for that long. Many of the Victorian police stations in the capital have been demolished or redeveloped for another use. The river police merged with the Metropolitan Police in 1839. Today Wapping Police Station is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Marine Policing Unit which polices 47 miles of the Thames. There’s a little museum on site which tells you the history of the river police, apparently it's worth a visit.🚤

Emily Organ Writer

2 months 2 weeks ago

Here's a location from Penny Green 9. I love this detailed photo - I can't find the date for it but my guess is some time between 1880 - 1910. Ludgate Circus sits at a crossroads between Fleet Street and Ludgate Hill. Lud Gate once stood here and was the westernmost gate in the Roman city walls. This area is supposedly the burial place of the legendary Welsh king, King Lud. It’s not clear if King Lud actually existed or not - he features in the 12th century book 'History of the Kings of Britain' by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Lud Gate was demolished in the 18th century and Ludgate Circus was constructed in the 1860s and 70s. In this picture you can see The King Lud pub to the left of the railway bridge - the pub is a location in PG9. The railway bridge was demolished in 1990 when new railway tunnels took the lines underground. Beneath Ludgate Circus flows one of London’s subterranean rivers, the River Fleet, which runs from Hampstead in north London down to the Thames and was largely covered over in the 18th century. Apparently you can still hear the river these days through a…

Emily Organ Writer

2 months 3 weeks ago

A Churchill & Pemberley Christmas novella is out now 🎄☃️🎅 - just 99c / 99p 😃 hyperurl.co/0ynuq6 (let me know if the link plays up)

Emily Organ Writer

2 months 4 weeks ago

A PG9 location for you! This building is the Inner Temple Gatehouse on Fleet Street. It was built in 1610 and stands on a site which once belonged to the Knights Templar (their former HQ, Temple Church, stands behind it). The black and white picture shows the building in the late 19th century and the other picture shows how it looks now. Uses of this building over the years include a tavern and Mrs Salmon’s Waxworks. In Penny’s time the building was used as a hairdressers. The sign on the front of the building in the 19th century - ‘Formerly the Palace of Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey’ - has not been verified and when the building was restored in the early 20th century, it was found that this facade was covering the original 17th century one. The building is now restored to its 17th century appearance and the inside is worth a look for its 17th century plasterwork. You can visit a Samuel Pepys exhibition here and he’s believed to have visited the building when it was a tavern. The gateway leads to the Inner Temple - one of the four Inns of Court for barristers in England and…

Emily Organ Writer

3 months 1 week ago

Churchill & Pemberley return this Thursday with a cold case to investigate! Puzzle in Poppleford Wood is on pre-order for 99c / 99p 😃 hyperurl.co/dialc4