Mandy de Belin

It was great to meet you, Jade! glad that you enjoyed the weekend.

I too am prod possessor of PhD from Leicester and got to wear cool robe with red brocade BUT back in 2012 only got to wear mortar board - no floppy hat, SO not fair!

I did a history PhD while continuing with my computing job (graduated 2012 so no huge online network back then). My best advice is make sure you do a bit every day - doesn't matter how small or whether reading/research/writing/thinking - just stay engaged!

A view from the other side at the end of midnight mass last Tues (listening to Vidor's Toccata as congregation left)

Does anyone know whether a magistrate could marry people in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century? (investigating what I suspect is a myth connected to my current research subject - Ashe Hall in Derbyshire)

I reviewed that in this years Friends of the Centre of English Local History Newsletter www.englishlocalhistory.org/wp/wp-conten...! (a good read)

Hunting used to be about the dogs - after 'modern' foxhunting arose it was about the horses - riding thoroughbreds fast over grass! (not a supporter of foxhunting - but in the 18th & 19th C it preserved foxes and led to planting of much woodland)

I was about to adopt InDesign when a friendly Buddhist nun (who does all the publicity design for her centre) recommended Affinity Publisher - MUCH cheaper, very easy to use, entirely satisfactory

happy to see you here! (that must make it worth it)