Rosemary Griggs
I must have been very young when I first crept into my grandparents’ front room and secretly borrowed a volume from the mahogany bookcase. I grew up on an isolated farm and I didn’t see many other children. But I wasn’t really lonely. Characters from the books I read became my friends. I made up stories about the adventures I shared with them.
An inspirational teacher at my first school fostered and encouraged my passion for reading and introduced me to history. A career in the Civil Service followed. My passion for the past has never faded. In retirement, I can give it full rein. No longer constrained to write carefully crafted policy briefings and speeches for Government Ministers I can now let my imagination fly and my own historical novels have a special place in the mahogany bookcase.
I’ve been called a Devonian Time Traveller for good reason. I spend as much time in sixteenth century dress as in 21st century garb. As Dame Hilary Mantel advises, to bring the past to life, you must inhabit their world. By dressing as they did, walking in their shoes in the places they knew I can forge a unique connection with the women whose stories I tell.
I research and create the clothes I wear, rekindling another long cherished interest - needlework.
Research into clothing opens windows into many aspects of Tudor and Elizabethan society. It has taken me in unexpected directions as I’ve learned where fabrics came from, who made the clothes, who made money from the process and much more — who would have thought that finding out about fabrics and dyes could lead me to international trade and even piracy?
Alongside that, you’ll often find me poring over wills and inventories, land transactions and the like. I enjoy visiting churches and old buildings, where glimpses of the past are all around us.Above all, I love sharing all I’ve learned through my writing and through appearances all over the west country.
Events Page My Writing My Blog
