‘I’ll get a vase for you. The florist who delivered them said they were from the South of France. He said the gentleman who sent them was most particular about you knowing that. Said they would remind you of him, while he wasn’t here…’
Prudence had gone a deep shade of pink and bowled out of the door backwards. Posie laughed and burrowed her face in the sweet soft buds of the mimosa and inhaled.
It was going to be a lovely summer.
****
Thanks for joining Posie Parker and her friends at the Grape Street Bureau.
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The Tomb of the Honey Bee (Three Posie Parker Short Stories #2) is available from 1st August 2014 on Amazon and other e-book stores, in e-book and paperback formats.
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Historical Note and 1920s Money
The historical timings, dates, background and detail described in this book are accurate to the best of my knowledge, save for the following exceptions:
Locations
1. The La Luna club never existed, although it is based very roughly on a club (The Cellar Door) in Aldwych, London (http://www.cellardoor.biz).
2. The Hatton Garden I have created is entirely fictional. In reality it is a world-renowned centre of excellence for diamonds.
3. The Athenaeum Theatre does not exist, neither does No 11, St James.
4. Nightingale Mews, SW7 and Winstanley Mews, SW3 do not exist.
5. The Galactic (and its sinking) is entirely fictitious.
6. The Associated Press is fictional.
7. The story of the Maharajah diamond is fictional (as are both the Maharajah and the city-state of Gwilim itself, although timings with regard to the rebellions and the period of the Viceroy in India are accurate).
8. I have taken the liberty of including the wonderful art-deco Bush House on Aldwych, London, WC1 (as background detail in chapter six) although in reality it was a building site in 1921 and not opened officially until 1925.
9. The famous Blue Train, Le Train Bleu (which Len takes in chapter twenty-seven), was already in service in 1921 (running from Calais to the fashionable hotspots of the South of France, including the Cap d’Antibes) but was not known by such a nickname until 1924.
Grape Street in London, WC1, really does exist, although you might have to do a bit of imagining to find Posie’s Detective Agency there.
Characters
The characters in this book are all fictitious, save for the appearances in chapter nine of Ivor Novello, the famous composer (1893–1951) and Kitty La Roar, who kindly appears as a historical version of herself (see www.kittylaroar.com).
A Short Note on Money
Very roughly, the 1921 figures for money given in the book equate to:
1. Five Pounds = a 2014 value of £207 or $346
2. Five Thousand Pounds = a 2014 value of £207,187 or $346,760
3. Ten Thousand Pounds = a 2014 value of £414,375 or $693,495
4. Seven Hundred Thousand Pounds = a 2014 value of £29,000,000 or $48,531,923
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Wendy Janes for her invaluable comments on the manuscript in draft, especially concerning the geography of 1920s London. Any mistakes remaining are, needless to say, my own.
Thank you to Red Gate Arts for producing such a beautiful and original art-deco cover design, and to Jane Dixon-Smith for her wonderful formatting and layout design.
My biggest thanks are reserved for Marco, for helping Posie Parker’s adventures to get onto the page and become more than simply a figment of my imagination.
****
About the Author
Cambridge-educated, British-born L.B. Hathaway writes historical fiction and contributes to a number of popular history magazines and websites. She worked as a lawyer at Lincoln’s Inn in London for almost a decade before becoming a full-time writer. She is a lifelong fan of detective novels set in the Golden Age of Crime, and is an ardent Agatha Christie devotee.
Her other interests, in no particular order, are: very fast downhill skiing, theatre-going, drinking strong tea, Tudor history, exploring castles and generally trying to cram as much into life as possible. She lives in London and Switzerland with her husband and young family.
The Posie Parker series of cosy crime novels span the 1920s. They each combine a core central mystery, an exploration of the reckless glamour of the age and a feisty protagonist who you would love to have as your best friend.
To find out more and for news of new releases and giveaways, go to:
http://www.lbhathaway.com
Connect with L.B. Hathaway online:
(e) [email protected]
(T) @LbHathaway
(f) http://www.facebook.com/LBHathawaybooks
Further Reading
If you are looking for some further historical reading on London during this time, see the following (all great reads and all easily available on Amazon and at good bookshops):
Singled Out: How Two Million British Women Survived Without Men After the First World War, Virginia Nicholson (Oxford University Press, USA, 2008)
Bright Young People: The Rise and Fall of a Generation 1918–1940, D J Taylor (Vintage, 2008)
Vile Bodies, Evelyn Waugh (Penguin Classics, New Edition, 2000)
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