For a historian, there are times when it is important to dream. Feet-on-the-ground is all very well, and there are plenty of opportunities to be sensible, thorough and precise. I can do that when its needed. I never, but never, allow my fantasies to overrule actual evidence and if I’m speculating I will always say…
Dust to Dust
There should have been so much to enjoy today. I was celebrating – the paperback of Miss Willmott’s Ghosts, published exactly a year after the hardback came out. I had arranged to meet three dear friends who had helped me so much with the book – the support, practical help, expertise, wisdom and just bottom-line…
Paperback Publication Day!
Please allow a little self indulgence as it sinks in that not only was Miss Willmott’s Ghosts published in the first place – and to all intents and purposes has sold out (there are a few copies of the hardback left on Amazon, but apart from that they’re gone…) – but it’s made it to…
Through the Oval Window: Ellen’s Summer Houses #1
Today I’m starting the first in an occasional series on Ellen Willmott’s (many) summer houses. By far the majority of them were in her main garden at Warley Place, which boasted at least eight, but that’s not counting the gazebos her sister Rose had at Warley Lea and Ellen also had a couple of cabins…
She who Laughs Last
As Willmott admirers went, there were few more ardent than her mentor, Swiss alpinist Henry Correvon. Rarely does he seem to go into print without some form of raving about Warley’s 65-metre ravine, its rocks, its pools, its nooks, its plants – and its creator. Privately, however, he was rather more stern with his young…
Spud-She-Like
I was relieved not to have bought into the phone call I had this morning from the ‘Potato Foundation’ wanting to name a spud after me. Ironically, I would have completely fallen for the April Fool if ‘Desiree Edwards’ had told me she wanted to name a potato for Ellen Willmott. A well-known Willmott legend…
The Dark Side of the Wall
There are some parts of Warley that have always been a mystery. This is mainly because of the way they’ve been represented (or not) in maps, photographs and even The Kip, despite their being – in theory at least – right in the middle of the pleasure garden. That doesn’t mean that they will stay…
The Kip
It occurs to me that I keep referring to something a bit strange-sounding in these blogs and that it may be worth explaining what the bloomin’ heck I’m talking about. Today, therefore, I’m going to focus on one of the best tools Willmott obsessives have in their box: The Kip. It’s a nickname, short for…
Fireman Ellen Ann
On the night of 2-3rd September, 1907, Miss Willmott’s magnificent, antique-filled, wisteria-draped French villa burned. Ellen was not at home at the time . She missed the drama by mere hours, taking the overnighter down from Paris to join her sister and brother in law – who were in the building, fast asleep. No one…
When Ellen met Monty…
I have a confession to make: My name is Sandra and I am an M.R. James fan. So, okay, for most people this is going to be a frustrating, completely self-indulgent post but it’s probably my only opportunity to talk about Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936), one of my favourite writers, in the same literary breath…
A Pair of Field Glasses
We know the current whereabouts of very few objects that absolutely, without doubt, belonged to Ellen; even fewer objects that absolutely, without doubt, also belonged to her family. So today’s piece is very special. These binoculars are not in the first flush of youth – or at least their once-sturdy, red velvet-lined case isn’t. It’s…
Ellen Willmott and Mr Bean
I recently had the immense pleasure of talking with Professor Michael Fay, Head of the Conservation Genetics team at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and orchideer extraordinaire. Mike and his colleague Mark Chase were kind enough to look at some of Ellen Willmott’s photos of orchids and help identify what they were. It took a…
Works at Warley
During the pandemic, just like humanity, Warley suffered. Over lockdown passionate volunteers were barred from carrying out pretty much any maintenance work – though quite how it is impossible to social distance when there’s about 12 of you in 30-odd acres of woodland still beats me. The hurt was palpable among the volunteers, seeing their…
Secret Signs
Warley Place is always slightly mysterious. It reveals its deepest secrets only to those who really – but really – look. We have no idea whether Ellen was aware, for example, that some of the stone her builders used in various parts of the garden is not quite what it first appears to be… The…
The People’s Princess
This post is for anyone who has read Miss Willmott’s Ghosts up to the end of Chapter Seven and just can’t get enough backstory. My editor very sensibly cut this section out of the book and I admit… it’s not absolutely necessary to know the following to make sense of Chapter Eight. But it is…
Miss Willmott’s Orchids
A couple of days ago I visited the annual Orchid Festival at Kew. It’s a sight to behold, this year celebrating the flora (and fauna) of Cameroon, with orchids used en masse, almost like bedding to create rivers and waterfalls of blooms in a dazzling riot of colour. I highly recommend it, it is just…
The Secret Gate
Everyone who visits Warley Place will know the tiny building at the south entrance, officially “South Lodge”, more affectionally known as Jacob Maurer’s cottage. I’ll talk about that one another day, as I also will about the lesser-known but still-standing North Lodge. Each is worth its own separate post, but today I want to look…
“That” Knuckleduster
There’s been a lot of talk about Ellen Willmott’s knuckleduster, so I thought today I’d tell the story of how it was found – and what I think it means… Warning: Most of the photographs in this post are going to be a bit out of focus. This is because it was DARK in that…
Miss Willmott’s Lawnmower
While Ellen Willmott is most famous for her William Robinson-esque ‘Wild Gardens’ she also owned acres and acres of formal lawns and paths. I was enjoying some rather fuzzy images of her butler James Robinson playing with some of her 13 dogs on the lawn outside Warley Place the other day… …and started wondering how…
Villa Boccanegra
Ventimiglia, Italy. Confession: Writing Miss Willmott’s Ghosts during covid meant that everything I knew about Villa Boccanegra at the time came from many, many photos, and long zoom talks with the garden’s keeper Ursula Piacenza and her friend and neighbour Carolyn Hanbury. On Monday I finally got to visit Ellen’s only extant garden and was…
Miss Willmott's Ghosts 