L is for Lake District

Paula loves the English Lake District.

I’ve been revising Fragrance of Violets for re-publication (and eventually forced myself to stop tweaking and to submit it last Sunday!). The story is set mainly in the Lake District, an area in North West England, which is one of our national parks. Known sometimes as Lakeland, or simply ‘The Lakes’, it’s not a large area – about 32 miles from east to west, and 40 from north to south – but it contains some of the most beautiful scenery in England. There are dozens of lakes, of course, although only one of them has the word ‘lake’ in its name. Others are called ‘water’ or ‘mere’ and the smaller ones are called ‘tarns’.

Windermere - the largest lake

The mountains in the Lake District are usually known as ‘fells’. They’re not particularly high (all under 3,300 feet), but they can still provide some spectacular views, from the valleys

Langdale Pikes from Tarn Hows

Or from the tops

It’s now over 55 years since I first visited the Lake District with my parents, who bought a small caravan just outside one of the villages in the southern part of this area. We used to go there frequently, and I eventually took over the caravan from them. As a result, I got to know the village very well, and it became the village in my novel. Although I gave it a different name (which allowed me to ‘move’ some of the buildings around), anyone familiar with the Lake District would recognise it!
Here, for example, is the twelfth century church on a small hill above the village, and the grey stone building is the ‘Old School’ which caused some controversy in my story when the roof was damaged by heavy rain.

This is the pub where, during the 80s, I got to know a lot of the locals – and played dominoes with them, so of course I had to use it in the story!

Here’s one of the small squares in the village

And here is one of the quaint, narrow lanes.

As well as giving the village a different name, I even ‘moved’ it into a different valley, because, ever since I was in my teens, this particular valley, dominated by its twin peaks (known as ‘pikes’ in Lakeland) has been my favourite place in the whole world. I may have fallen in love with Connemara in the last 10 years, but revising Fragrance of Violets has reminded me that I have had a much longer love affair with the Lake District, and especially with this valley!

 

Stop Press Info!

I'm happy to say that the new cover for Fragrance of Violets (finalised copy received today, just three days after submission of the ms.!) has a genuine Lakeland scene as its background and I am thrilled to bits with it!