Afternoon With Author Rowan Coleman, Holdsworth House, Halifax

Last Sunday I attended a literary talk event organized by the Brontë Society. The speaker was Rowan Coleman, an acclaimed writer from Hertfordshire who has recently written books inspired by the Brontë Sisters. The venue for this most enjoyable talk was the very beautiful Holdsworth House Hotel on the outskirts of Halifax. It is a 17th century Jacobean manor house surrounded by stunning landscaped gardens. It has been privately owned through centuries by people of wealth and distinction, and in 1963 it opened to the public as a hotel.

Awed by the photos of the house I'd seen on internet prior to the event I decided to arrive a bit earlier and have a look around the gardens and the exterior of the house. It was a cold, dull and drizzly day....

It was lovely to meet the charming and friendly writer Rowan Coleman and listen to what she had to say about herself, her writing and her books. She talked about her Brontë inspired novels- "The Girl At the Window", published back in August, and "The Vanished Bride", published earlier this month. I had already read the former book and loved it, and am just about to start reading the latter.

Author Rowan Coleman reading from her book "The Girl At The Window"

After the talk we were treated to the traditional English cream tea which was extremely good and full of home made taste.

After the event, I took some photos of the wonderful courtyard and interior of the house.

It was just getting dark, the time of day when lights start coming on their warm glow mingling with the dark blue of the dusk sky, and I thought I'd return to the garden and take a few more pics before heading back to the Halifax train station.

This was just a perfect Sunday afternoon for me. There is nothing I would like more than a day filled with literature, pleasant and inspiring people, lovely food and a most beautiful olde worlde place. In fact, the hotel is one of the most beautiful period houses I have ever seen; it strikes me as a great bolthole from which to explore Shibden Hall and the surrounding countryside. I shall remember that when I want to stay somewhere special next.