Flying Boats and Sea Planes
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100 years ago this October Supermarine was born
What does the name ‘Supermarine’ mean to you? The Spitfire? Nothing? An important company in Southampton’s history and later Swindon too? If you’re a football supporter to Swindon do you know what the connection is? It meant little to me until my parents started looking into our family history and Dad began to speak of…
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Diana Jackson’s Centenary Tour ~ October Events!
I’m excited to announce that my events to celebrate three centenaries continue this October. RNAS Calshot March 1913 The First Schneider Trophy Contest April 1913 The birth of Supermarine in Woolston Southampton October 1913 I will be talking about my novels and my unusual interest in Supermarine and early flight, especially, flying boats and the role of…
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Virtual Tour of the Solent and Beyond ~No 14~WW1 in the Med and Port Said
If this is the first of my virtual tour posts that you’ve stumbles upon, since Christmas I’ve been on a journey around the Solent from Fort Gilkicker, along Southampton Water, back out to Calshot, over to The Channel Islands and France and today we travel in our mind’s eye to Turkey and the Mediterranean. This…
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Virtual Tour of the Solent ~ The Story so far and where to next?
I began this virtual tour to show that a sense of place is important in my writing. I need to describe the areas in my novel enough to help the reader to feel that ‘sense of place,’ but I thought it might be helpful to give a little more background information and description. I have…
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Virtual Tour of the Solent and Beyond no 10 ~ 100yrs of RNAS Calshot!
My tour of the Solent area, which began just after Christmas, is timed perfectly to reach Calshot Spit at about the beginning of March because 100 years ago, in March 1913, RNAS Calshot was first opened as a naval air station to launch and service flying boats before and during the First World War. It…
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The Solent and beyond ~ A Virtual History Tour Post No 3 ~ Lee on Solent. Seaplanes, hovercraft and helicopters!
On my virtual historical tour of the Solent we will continue heading north west, but will pause a while at Lee on Solent. This is an unscheduled stop because Lee on Solent does not in fact feature in my novel ‘Ancasta ~ Guide me Swiftly Home,’ but the bay certainly has important history and my parents…
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Historical Fiction ~ Historical Research
There is always a great deal of controversy between the purists who research history for its own sake, and those, like myself, who try to popularise it to make it accessible to a wider audience by turning it into fiction. I must admit to taking the research far more methodically for my second novel ‘Ancasta ~ Guide…
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BBC Radio Solent. Diana and Colin have a chat with Katie Martin
I met Colin van Geffen, (the local artist who designed my covers and historian who checked some of my facts) outside the Bitterne Heritage Centre. Both Ancasta ~ Guide me Swiftly Home and Riduna are for sale there. It seemed a fitting place to meet since that’s where my research in the area began several…