Wenlock

Well, we made it through to the final, which will be against the Privy Council Office. We filmed the semifinal and the final on the same day, 10 July, which happened to be the last day of the Romantic Novelists' Association Conference. Jenny and Catherine, despite being RNA Chairman and Vice-Chairman, made the sensible call of leaving the Conference the previous afternoon. Annie decided that the logistics meant that it was too much to try and combine the Conference and the filming. I was determined, however, not to miss the big Conference Dinner, not least because I had gone to some lengths to have something decent to wear to it - the Regency outfit that graces my profile photo over on the right, and which was displayed by Kate Allan on her blog a while back.

So I ate well, drank well, partied after dinner with some of the more committed partiers within the RNA, and then the next morning stuffed my Regency gear into my motorbike panniers and bombed up the motorway from Egham to Manchester in time for our call. Luckily it was one of those perfect biking days - calm, sunny, and, at 6:00am, not desperately hot.

I promised various people, including Dawn Wood, who made the clothes, and Sarah Juniper who made the shoes, that I would wear my Regency outfit in the final if we made it that far. Having hauled it out of its confinement I was rather worried that it would be so crushed and crumpled that it would be a poor advertisement for their work, but Granada's wardrobe people did a marvellous job of steaming, starching and ironing, so it was very presentable indeed.

Quite what it looks like on TV, even I will only find out next week.