I've been surrounded by lots and lots of flowers today. Yellow Tulips, white Easter Lilies, purple Pansies, and they all make my nose itch! Aunt and I have been making flower arrangments to decorate our home and the local church. It's fiddly work and mine don't look as neat, as aunt keeps reminding me. Apparently, it's ladylike to make beautiful arrangments!  I'm more excited about the egg hunt in the local park... I can't wait to collect all of the beautifully colored eggs hidden in the hedgerows and behind the trees and if I collect the most, I'll get a surprise...

Bring home your very own Amelia!

"Aunt Cora doesn’t seem to like the idea of education. I’ve to hide my books that Miss Lancer gave me on my last day of school - “You have a fine brain, Amelia. Don’t forget that,"  if Aunt Cora had anything to do with it, I’d easily forget it. “With a book, you are never lonely. With education, you have a solid sense of self-worth.” Those words have stuck with me  I’m only just appreciating now that she said those things to me.  It helps when you’ve someone that believes in you."

Amelia's inheritance by BAFTA nominated writer and director Sandra Goldbacher is available to purchase now. 

I’ve really enjoyed teaching Effie to read although it’s frustrating sometimes as she doesn’t always listen. Now I know why adults say ‘ Patience is a virtue’ ! We’ve been reading from my ancestor Matilda Marchmont’s old diary - Effie loves reading it as it’s filled with such shocking stories from Tudor times ! Effie does love anything dramatic, just like her brother Fleet !

I love being able to read - there are so many books I want tuck into before I go to bed. I don’t know why society thinks women can’t - or shouldn’t - write. There are so many lady authors now - Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Barret Browning, Christina Rosetti ! I want to read  them all but Aunt Cora thinks I should only read texts on sewing, or silly things like dance steps….

Why not read more about Amelia in Amelia’s Inheritance, a story of intrigue and adventure set in Victorian London. 

Papa is keen for us all to go on a lovely day trip to the seaside, now the weather is warmer and more pleasant. I want to try sea bathing so Aunt Cora decided I had to have the proper clothes so as not to scandalise everyone. As if I would!

I don’t mind our shopping trips as much these days, although she does seem to find them tiring. The noise and the bustle still gets to me, all that simpering over ribbons still seems very silly! But a bathing dress does mean I can go in the sea!

Well, I have it now. It is all black, with flannel bloomers and a flannel, long sleeved dress with matching black bathing boots. The boots have straw soles and laces all the way up to my knees. The cap is quite ok though, a bit jaunty perched on my head and the black stockings are quite soft. It does not, however, look very practical for swimming in the sea I must say. It will get all heavy and itchy when it gets wet! But Aunt Cora has promised to help me embroider colourful coils round the tops of my boots and the cuffs of my dress so it will be less boring to look at, at least.

The first Easter Egg was made by Frys in Bristol in 1873, and was made of bitter dark chocolate with lots of marzipan decorations and piping. It would have been expensive and only available to the rich to give as a present. Cadbury’s in Birmingham launched their version 2 years later in 1875.

More common was a cardboard egg covered with satin and filled with easter presents and small chocolates, this is more likely to have been what Amelia would receive from her father and possibly her Aunt Cora. It was still a preserve of the middle and upper classes though. Easter was very much a celebration centred on the family so even Effie’s family would have had the chance to spend some time together and attend public celebrations to break the difficult time of going without in Lent.