{"id":2680,"date":"2012-03-01T00:01:19","date_gmt":"2012-03-01T00:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksbylyncote.com\/SWBS\/?p=2680"},"modified":"2012-02-26T18:57:43","modified_gmt":"2012-02-26T18:57:43","slug":"british-mystery-author-veronica-heley-false-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksbylyncote.com\/SWBS\/new-book-release\/british-mystery-author-veronica-heley-false-report","title":{"rendered":"British Mystery Author Veronica Heley & False Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the third time I’ve had the pleasure of hosting British Mystery Author Veronica Heley. If you missed her first two visits, here are the links to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/booksbylyncote.com\/SWBS\/uncategorized\/british-author-veronica-heley-her-strong-heroines<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/booksbylyncote.com\/SWBS\/uncategorized\/british-author-veronica-heley-guests-today<\/a><\/p>\n

Veronica never fails to share something interesting! And so without further chatter, here’s Veronica:<\/span><\/p>\n

Strong Women\u2026<\/p>\n

I like to dress in positive colours; red, white and blue. Never in black. One of the few colours I know I can wear is lilac, but purple is beyond me.<\/p>\n

In the old days purple was a colour reserved for the Imperial family in Rome and no ordinary person could wear it. The reason for this was its scarcity, and the fact that it became more, and not less stable when exposed to sunlight. The dye itself was\u00a0 derived from a particular shellfish, and the process of extraction and then dying the cloth cost a lot in terms of both time and labour.<\/p>\n

And when you\u2019d finally achieved a decent result, you had to sell it. So who did you know who had the contacts and the no-how to sell it on to Rome? Someone well connected, and with a business head on his shoulders? Well connected, yes. Business head, yes. But it was a woman called Lydia who operated this trade in Philippi.<\/p>\n

She was a woman who worshipped God on the Sabbath day, and when St Paul arrived in Philippi it wasn\u2019t long before he came across her. He talked. She listened, and she understood that what he said came from God. She and her whole household were baptized, upon which she invited Paul and Silas to stay with her.<\/p>\n

The modern heroine of the Bea Abbot stories is an older business woman who runs a successful domestic agency supplying the requirements of the high and mighty. <\/strong>She is a widow \u2013 I\u2019ve always thought Lydia must have been a widow because of the freedom she exercised in a man\u2019s world and because she was the head of her household. Bea reads her dead husband\u2019s bible, prays and tries to live as a Christian in many a difficult situation. And although she has a grown up and important son \u2013 at least in his own estimation he\u2019s important – she has also taken in a couple of dysfunctional youngsters who might otherwise fall through the cracks of society.<\/p>\n