Writing and nature posts, mostly. Books at https://scarletferret.com/authors/marian-l-thorpe and all the other usual on-line places. Also at https://substack.com/@marianlthorpehttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mjjndkch2s27'behind the stories were, perhaps, real people, ones who laughed and loved, grieved and feared' #bookreview #greekmyth https://open.substack.com/pub/mlthorpeauthor/p/pasiphae-by-jane-dougherty?r=6c058&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true15 Apr 2026 10:03 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjjndkch2s27https://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mjdaar77q22bStained glass, wheatears, and my 68th birthday. mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/10-weeks-2c2 https://mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/10-weeks-2c212 Apr 2026 20:53 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjdaar77q22bhttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mj37vyyuos2pUtterly delightful street signs in Chartres.09 Apr 2026 16:25 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mj37vyyuos2phttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mj27x7yvl22vOne seeks to save an empire. The other seeks to save his soul.✍️📖 'A dangerous world of seduction and intrigue...the storytelling is gripping...the dialogue as keen as an assassin's blade.' Alistair Tosh All 51 chapters of Empress & Soldier are now up and free for you to read. https://open.substack.com/pub/mlthorpeauthor/p/empress-and-soldier-table-of-contents09 Apr 2026 06:53 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mj27x7yvl22vhttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mi4bjxea2s2t“There are plenty of other ghosts.” “Not of our rank, Augustus. No one else who understands.” https://mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/a-comfort-to-many-men28 Mar 2026 09:02 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mi4bjxea2s2thttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mhsnmmcytk26Larches know it’s spring: new leaves, upright, pink female cones, downward-facing yellow male cones. When the wind caught branches today, clouds of pollen were released.24 Mar 2026 13:11 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mhsnmmcytk26https://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mhn7223px223Bean geese, spoonbills, and Roman Emperors in this week’s journal. mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/ten-weeks https://mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/ten-weeks22 Mar 2026 09:07 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mhn7223px223https://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mhlkkujzqk2zSky and marsh and sea at Cley.21 Mar 2026 17:28 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mhlkkujzqk2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mh74t2tnfk2pSea wrack and shells on a North Norfolk beach.16 Mar 2026 18:50 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mh74t2tnfk2phttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mh3hurcjbs2rCastles, chapels, chiff-chaffs and Cetti’s warblers, and the next stages of editing.✍️🦜 https://mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/this-writers-diary-ten-weeks-2d815 Mar 2026 07:57 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mh3hurcjbs2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mgwuiyku5s2p A #horror story (sort of) for ##FridayThirteenth https://mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/fog-and-stars13 Mar 2026 12:00 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgwuiyku5s2phttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mgsg4gth4k2gOne of my favourite views in King’s Lynn, looking up the cobbled College Lane at the 15th C Trinity Guildhall, now the Town Hall. College Lane is named for the 16th C Thoresby College, founded for the chantry priests that served Trinity Guildhall.11 Mar 2026 17:32 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgsg4gth4k2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mgpubch3dc2gCommon gulls and black-headeds, greylags and Canadas on the lake; siskin and goldfinches and chaffinches in the trees; robins and wrens in the undergrowth. Old sandpits, dug for sand to make glass, now a peaceful lake beside a road that’s been there since Saxon times.10 Mar 2026 17:07 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgpubch3dc2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mgpmyvewos2sIncluding a couple of mine - but #books for all ages and tastes. ✍️ https://canadianindieauthors.substack.com/p/books-with-strong-heroines-roundup10 Mar 2026 14:57 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgpmyvewos2shttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mgnarvxruc2dNorwich Castle, built at the order of William the Conquerer. where I spent a good chunk of today in the rebuilt Great Chamber, and at the Medieval Life gallery — research for detail in An Unwise Prince.09 Mar 2026 16:13 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgnarvxruc2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mghh4zqjnc2vMedieval detail at the top of a flying buttress, Ely Cathedral.07 Mar 2026 08:51 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mghh4zqjnc2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mgemw3va2s24The light in Ely yesterday was extraordinary, so clear that details of the cathedral I’ve never noticed before stood out, like these colours on the side facing the town. The whole building almost glowed.06 Mar 2026 05:56 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgemw3va2s24https://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mgare2ovms2lI sat this morning on a bench at Roydon Common. The sky was a cloudless blue. Two buzzards circled and cried. The air was full of lark song, and I saw my first butterfly of the year, a peacock.04 Mar 2026 17:05 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgare2ovms2lhttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mg3kwcspw22mThe Norman (12th C) font at St Laurence’s, Castle Rising, Norfolk. Those are cats’ heads adorning it: the font was moved from the original Norman church dedicated to St. Felix, the saint I wrote about (not very piously) in the link below. #writing https://mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/st-felix-and-the-beaver02 Mar 2026 15:27 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mg3kwcspw22mhttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mfyc5j7dbk27‘Out on the mudflats oystercatchers and curlew feed in large groups; closer in are redshank and ringed plover. Something puts the golden plover up, and they wheel and glitter in the sun.’ #birds #nature #walking #Norfolk #writing https://mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/this-writers-diary-ten-weeks-ef101 Mar 2026 08:12 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mfyc5j7dbk27https://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mfwnmpwzsk24Camellia flowering in the village today.28 Feb 2026 16:32 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mfwnmpwzsk24https://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mfvysmaqek2z"I want you to teach us to dance." ✍️ https://mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/play-for-mortal-stakes28 Feb 2026 10:19 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mfvysmaqek2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mfllftkpok2jThe 15th century rood screen (chancel screen) at St Nicholas’s, Dersingham. I walked in the moss-and-mole-softened churchyard for a while today, looking for my great-grandparents’ graves. One I could find again, just; the other is now lost to time and lichen.24 Feb 2026 06:53 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mfllftkpok2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mfgqt66ewc2l'Lark song accompanies us through most of the walk; in the woodland sections, tits — long-tailed, blue, great — call. A lone fieldfare is perched in an oak tree... We talk sporadically, about plot tangles, about the birds, about what we can see.'✍️ https://mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/this-writers-diary-10-weeks22 Feb 2026 08:46 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mfgqt66ewc2lhttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mfeijisq6k2o#bookreview! 'Irish and Norse mythologies, reinterpreted into something new and wonderful.' https://mlthorpeauthor.substack.com/p/the-darkest-tide-by-jane-dougherty21 Feb 2026 11:13 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mfeijisq6k2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/marianlthorpe.bsky.social/post/3mf5nlvju4223Either side of the Peddars’ Way, an ancient trackway/Roman road crossing Norfolk, fields hold Bronze Age round barrows. One, in a small woodland, Anmer Minque, might be the site of a Roman - Iceni battle. A barrow further west is reputedly an Anglo-Saxon moot hill. No wonder my writing flows here.✍️18 Feb 2026 17:55 +0000at://did:plc:uvfl7oz5mpstah5cfeauqv7l/app.bsky.feed.post/3mf5nlvju4223