This image is the cover for the book The Great History of the Manor Bouchove Part 2: The Pearl on the River Meuse

The Great History of the Manor Bouchove Part 2: The Pearl on the River Meuse

We live in a house in the centre of a small village. With its stately façades and turret, the villagers sweetly call it châtelet. Before us, French noblesse have stayed in it, gentry with impressive estates in France. During dozens of holiday trips, we have located and documented all of it. But that didn’t give any answer to the question: How to present it in a digestible… no, in a captivating manner? How to abridge the centuries and how to connect the turbulent history of Europe with everyday life in the village? For that purpose, I introduced a family of estate stewards employed by the Masters of Bouchove. After all, masters come and go, but stewards stay. Besides clerks, marketers and a villain. Thus I got a story line and could start processing the numerous bits and pieces of information into three volumes that describe the rich history of Bouchove.

Pith Schure

With his wife, Mieke, he traversed France in search of the noblesse with ties to Bouchove, Viavia. He managed to visit numerous castles where the Bouchove noblesse had lived, lodged, hunted and made love. With her charm, Mieke supported him in social contacts and proved indispensable as photographer. Coming home, all info was ordered. With a keen eye for exciting details, Internet was consulted. Also, he built up a database of pictures and maps that he modelled to his needs and to meet copyright rules. All this for the development of a historic novel with true data and enriched with adventure and romance to make it pleasant reading.

Austin Macauley Publishers