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 When I retired after too many years in journalism, I felt a longing for happy endings and stories where the good guys win and the bad guys get their just deserts. Having exhausted my library’s supply of non-gory mystery stories, I started reading romance novels, especially historical romance. This was so much fun that I thought I’d like to try my hand at writing one. So it was that at the age of 70 I took my  I think I’ll be spinning tales for quite while. | |
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 Painting by Daniel O'Sullivan | 
 A few not-so-new books 
 Not All Tarts Are Apple A delightful story about a young girl growing up in 1950s Soho 
 Man on a Donkey  The Pilgrimage of Grace. Henry VIII is not a good guy in this. 
 The Cypresses Believe in God The beginnings of the Spanish Civil War. Not a tale of good versus evil so much as a tragedy of good versus good. 
 The Unicorn Murders A mystery by the master of the locked room or impossible crime. A favorite because I read it on a wonderful vacation on St. John’s in the Virgin Islands. 
 Waverly The first of his novels. I know he is no longer fashionable, but I love his stories, especially the Scottish ones and his reminder that change brings loss as well as gain. | 
