{"id":2480,"date":"2022-03-01T10:58:39","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T10:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/?p=2480"},"modified":"2022-03-01T10:58:41","modified_gmt":"2022-03-01T10:58:41","slug":"confession-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/?p=2480","title":{"rendered":"Confession Time!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Despite launching \u2018Peril in Persia\u2019 at the end of January, I haven\u2019t given a thought to this year\u2019s novel. I have a title \u2018Blood on the Left Bank\u2019 and, as the title suggests, it will be another Fiona Mason Mystery and be set in Paris. I even have an idea of the victim, but that\u2019s as far as I\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Canary Islands<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I may not have found time to do any fiction writing, but I have been far from idle. Back in January I was offered a port lecturing cruise to the Canary Islands, so I have spent this month preparing my presentations. I love researching the history and discovering the major attractions to visit in each of the ports. I\u2019m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to putting the presentations together, and finding just the right photo to illustrate what I\u2019m saying takes up a great deal of time. I estimate that each presentation takes me at least a week, sometimes two. Even when they are all done and dusted, just like with the manuscripts for my novels, I cannot resist the urge to tinker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gadir Archaeological Site<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our first port of call will be Cadiz \u2013 Europe\u2019s oldest city \u2013 established by the Phoenicians. Although on our last visit, we did see the splendid marble Phoenician Sarcophagi in the Cadiz Museum, until I was preparing my talk, I had no idea that there was an underground archaeological site deep beneath the heart of the city. So that\u2019s where I\u2019ll be heading when the ship arrives in port. It sounds fascinating with the remains of eight Phoenician houses plus a museum full of objects found on the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mount Teide<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a very long time since we were in the Canaries and even then, we didn\u2019t get to see Gran Canaria or Fuerteventura so they\u2019ll be new islands for us. I have to confess, it’s so long ago, I remember very little apart from a visit to a market and a trip to the top of Mount Teide on Tenerife. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preparing all the slides to explain how oceanic volcanic ridges are formed took me back to my days in the classroom as a geography teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Madeira<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our final port of call will be to Funchal, capital city of the Portuguese island of Madeira. Looking forward to seeing all those flowers again. Funchal is a beautiful port from what I can remember. Sometimes called \u2018little Lisbon\u2019 because the Old Town with its 18th century houses with shady courtyards, iron balconies and cobbled streets and those glorious glazed azulejo<\/em> tiles so characteristic of the Portuguese capital. One of the great things about preparing port talks is that it whets your appetite for the cruise and helps you plan exactly what you want to see when you get there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite launching \u2018Peril in Persia\u2019 at the end of January, I haven\u2019t given a thought to this year\u2019s novel. I have a title \u2018Blood on the Left Bank\u2019 and, as the title suggests, it will be another Fiona Mason Mystery and be set in Paris. I even have an idea of the victim, but that\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,85,11],"tags":[159,161,160],"class_list":{"0":"post-2480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-general-interest","7":"category-travel","8":"category-writing","9":"tag-cadiz","10":"tag-madeira","11":"tag-the-canary-islands","12":"entry","13":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2480"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2493,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480\/revisions\/2493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}