• Books
    • A Receiver of Stolen Words
  • Home
    • Education and Libraries Question Time
    • OU A215 Creative Writing: What did I learn?
    • OU A363 Creative Writing: what did I learn?
    • About Chateaux En Espagne
    • BlogLinks
      • Contact
      • Shortlink
  • Stories 2012
    • A weekend in the garden
    • Clone brothers
    • Heaven Palace Beach Resort Hotel
    • Lucky sixpence
    • Mulcahy and Rivers
    • My boyfriend ran off with the Nifty-Ware salesman
    • Nothing ventured – nothing gained
    • Optical Illusions
    • Parallax
    • Peace walls
    • Power of a woman
    • SANS, SOUCI.
    • The Manoir
    • The Morgawr
  • Stories 2013
    • A matter of time
    • Dead wires
    • Hikikomori
    • Moonlight flit
    • Murder on the Dejanira
    • The Analytical Assurance Company
    • The Bones of a Plot
    • The Eye of the Storm
    • The London Spy
    • The man who killed the thing he loved
    • The scarlet thread
    • The Tree of Knowledge
  • Stories 2014
    • Death at the Red Rose
    • Orange trees
    • Out of Africa
    • Snow
    • Something old…
    • The Best of All Possible Worlds
      • For Anton!
    • The Duddingham Line
    • The memories of sand
    • The shopping list
    • The Transaction
  • Stories 2015
    • ‘Silver Ghost’
    • A Month at Bath
    • Adam
    • Arrivals
    • Gold, and blue…
    • Hinky-Dinky, Parlay-Voo
    • Love at first sight
    • Meat
    • Out of the blue
    • Smoking is bad for you
    • The Immortal Lavoisier
  • STORIES 2016
    • 969 miles
    • Doggerland
    • Love and Death at St Cluedo’s
    • The Imp
  • Stories 2017
    • Pond Dippers
    • Salou
    • The cyclist
    • The Invincible Armada
    • The kitchen window
  • Stories 2018
    • 60 minutes
    • A Christmas birthday
    • Hate mail
    • Snow Devils
    • The ‘Daisy Dancer’
    • The picnic
  • Stories 2019
    • A darkness in the light
    • A five course lunch
    • A tale of two lifestyles
    • Curiosities of Literature
    • Knightsbridge, 1967
    • Missing hours
    • The Speyside Regiment
    • The stone

Chateaux en Espagne

~ Stories and reflections

Chateaux en Espagne

Monthly Archives: July 2015

The Immortal Lavoisier: July TCWG Short Story

21 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by chateauxenespagne in Creative Writing, Historical fiction, TCWG

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bastille, chemistry, Creative Writing, DuPont, French Revolution, historical fiction, Immigration, Lavoisier

#amwriting The Telegraph Creative Writing Group July Competition has ‘Ocean Crossing’ as its theme. ‘The Immortal Lavoisier’ is based on the connection between E I du Pont, the founder of the famous American chemical company, and Antoine and Marie Lavoisier who were his mentors as a student of chemistry in Paris, at a time when the sciences of chemistry, applied chemistry and chemical engineering were just coming to life, only to be tragically interrupted by the French Revolution. Lavoisier was at that time an acclaimed scientist, the Einstein of his day; his wife had considerable experience in the chemistry laboratory, and in writing and illustrating scientific papers.

I have used as much as I can gather from historical sources and imagined conversations that might have taken place between du Pont and the Lavoisiers. He kept no record of these, although the Lavoisiers are often mentioned in the family correspondence. But it is certain that he printed the Memoires de Chimie at that time and that he also printed the defence of the Fermiers-Generaux. Lavoisier was of great importance to him and his family, and his original idea for the gunpowder mills at Brandywine Creek was to name them the Lavoisier Mills. So it is not unreasonable to imagine that he would have visited Lavoisier during his imprisonment, or the kinds of conversations they may have had.

The link between the story and the month’s theme is du Pont’s emigration across the Atlantic, and the reasons for his journey. The decision to emigrate is never taken lightly; what courage or desperation must it take to leave behind a familiar world to seek one’s fortune in an alien land? It takes ability and self-belief. We should respect the immigrants who seek shelter with us – amongst them may be the du Ponts of the 21st century.

‘Improving Men’ and their occupations

10 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by chateauxenespagne in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

There was a time when Birmingham was one of the most improved towns in the world…

Notes from 19th Century Birmingham

For part of my thesis I’ve been finding out about some of Birmingham’s early 19th century administrators, the Street Commissioners. Last year I spent a wonderful summer in the Wolfson Centre at the Library of Birmingham, reading through fifty years of the commissioners’ minute books. This year I’ve spent a lot of time analysing the information from the notes and this has formed the basis of a chapter. One of the things I wanted to get across was that the body of commissioners were representatives of the local community and not some shadowy elites confined to the county seat over in Warwick. So, using my notes, I carried out a survey of commissioners’ occupations over the period 1812-1832. This proved quite time consuming work and I also discovered I’m not very good at counting! I ended up with a list of 255 street commissioners, who had held office during the…

View original post 608 more words

What Makes An #Editor publish a Short #Story in a #Literary #Magazine? #writing

08 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by chateauxenespagne in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Lots to think about here, see also Graham Swift on the short story: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/07/graham-swift-short-stories-paperback-writer

Giselle

Giselle

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Recent Posts

  • Want to pick up an Amazon Bestseller? #YouBeneathYourSkin
  • Zubal Books Advises Buyers to NEVER Purchase From Bookjackers
  • Details of the June 2019 tcwg competition.
  • July/August 2018 TCWG short story competition
  • Always Remember I Love You

Archives

  • October 2019
  • June 2019
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • April 2018
  • February 2018
  • July 2017
  • March 2017
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • July 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012

Categories

  • Abstract art
  • Birmingham
  • Creative Writing
  • Historical fiction
  • History
  • Library of Birmingham
  • TCWG
  • Uncategorized
  • Victorians

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.