Have you ever wondered what the characters get up to once you close the pages of a book?  I thought I’d like to find out so from Monday I’m going to write Hildegard’s Apocrypha:  the out takes from the series.

To begin with, Hildegard is thirty-four.  She’s a Cistercian nun.  She lives in Chaucer’s England.  She solved the riddle of two murders, was sent on a secret mission to Rome, and then retired to a grange in the country.  But not for long.  Soon she was recruited as a spy by the Archbishop of York and witnessed a horrific beheading…More later.

Have just been invited to a wake on October 30th.  Only one thing strange, the ‘corpse’ isn’t dead.  Who hasn’t wanted to be at their own funeral in a living capacity?  You can see who’s there and who isn’t, who’s dancing and who’s weeping, who’s throwing themselves on the coffin, sobbing piteously, and who’s concealing a smile behind a gloved hand.  At the same time, isn’t it going to tempt the grim reaper to step closer?  Would you risk it? This will take place on 30th October in Staithes, North Yorkshire and it’s for the landlord of the best pub in the village, the Captain Cook.  In The Law of Angels there’s a scene where the villagers of Staithes (unnamed in the book) give a ship burial to their dead.  They’re tough, descended from Vikings, and set the ships ablaze in the bay.  Are you going to up the ante?