Elizabeth Chanter's Blog

Our society has quite an obsession with romance & mystery. In today's world so much is planned and flighty behavior is often discouraged. So, we escape in books to a time when there weren't so many things tying us down each day. A time when a picnic in a park wasn't a rarity & falling madly in love with a stranger wasn't uncommon.

Information wasn't readily accessible. Mystery was commonplace. With no internet and social media to keep others involved in the interworkings of lives, a sense of mystery surrounded everyone.

Mystery & romance are harder to find these days, but they aren't gone completely. Don't lose the allure of both in your life.

Dashell sank thankfully into an armchair, his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands, so exhausted in heart and mind that he could have wept. For the third time in as many days he had to endure seeing someone's distress…

At twenty-five past one there was still no sign of Walden. At precisely half-past one Dashell went out into the hall just as Walden opened the door upstairs. He slowly crossed the landing and came downstairs. When he was halfway down Dashell opened the front door. Walden went outside and down the steps and turned round when he reached the bottom, but the door had already been shut.

There’s no doubt that the world moves faster than it did in the old days. With the constant creation of new technologies, each year gets a little big faster. When was the last time you stopped to smell the roses?

I like to take moments and remember a time when things moved slower. I’d like to travel to a time when phones weren’t constantly buzzing, newsfeeds were constantly updating & alarms weren’t constantly sounding.

How do you slow your life down? Do you even try?

There's no doubt that the world moves faster than it did in the old days. With the constant creation of new technologies, each year gets a little big faster. When was the last time you stopped to smell the roses?

I like to take moments and remember a time when things moved slower. I'd like to travel to a time when phones weren't constantly buzzing, newsfeeds were constantly updating & alarms weren't constantly sounding.

How do you slow your life down? Do you even try?

The House on Becket Lane is a book about England of the early 19th century, a time of horses and carriages and strict rules of conduct and etiquette, in which an aristocrat falls in love with a commoner and begins a romance fraught with problems and difficulties, and a family mystery. 

This particular time-era is one that a number of readers enjoy as it conveys a sense of a slower pace of life, which we in the 21st century would like to enjoy as well if only we could. Life is only as fast as one's transport, and yet back in those days even the best horses were never quite fast enough. And how we love collectables from the Georgian and Victorian eras!

 Come and enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

I always liked the 19th century classic authors like Jane Austen, the Brontes, Charles Dickens and so on. I was influenced by these writers.

I was born in London, England and emigrated to Canada in 1966. The setting of the story came naturally. I couldn't help thinking that society today needs to be transported to a slower time. A place where they can relax.

I was thrilled when I engaged a local young man, aged about 19, to copy edit my book. When he finished, he said he found it interesting. For an early 21st century person commenting on a book with a time era of 200 years ago, I found that to be a compliment.

Travel to another time and another place in The House on Becket Lane. Where would you like to travel in a book? What time period would you like to see?

Two families in Victorian England struggle with secrets and family shame that must be kept from within and without. When a chance encounter twists their fates together, can love survive?