Mark Your Calendars for a Special Date!

...and other big announcements

Dear lovely friends!

What a few weeks it has been! Between finishing a book, graduating, escaping to Italy, and gathering the whole family around the Easter table, life has felt wonderfully full. There is so much to share with you, and I’m delighted to sit down and catch you up on everything.

In this newsletter, I’ll be sharing:

· A huge book announcement is coming…mark your calendars!

· Graduating with my Master’s in Country House Studies

· A trip to Italy with Malcolm for house planning and antique shopping

· New Substack essays on Gilded Age heiresses

· Easter at Mapperton with all four children

· Training for the Amsterdam marathon with Emma and Jack

Let’s dive in!

Mark your calendars: April 19

Last week, I had my final meeting at the publisher for the Mapperton illustrated book, and I can hardly contain my excitement. Malcolm, the stylist for the book, and I spent a good few hours there going through everything, and I’m now deep in the work of writing captions for all 300 photographs.

It’s been quite the slog, I won’t lie, but the book is looking so wonderful that every caption feels worth it.

I can’t say more just yet, but please mark your calendars: Sunday, April 19.

A huge announcement about the book is coming, and I cannot wait to share it with you.

A Master’s with Distinction

I am so thrilled to share that I have officially graduated with my Master’s in Country House Studies…and with Distinction!

It was one of those days that felt almost surreal: wearing the robe and the hat, hearing my name announced, and then seeing it written down with the little cross that denotes Distinction. I may have got a tiny bit emotional.

This degree has shaped so much of how I think about heritage, preservation, and the stories houses hold. If you’d like to see the moment, it’s all in a recent Mapperton Live video: “How Did This Happen? How Mapperton Changed My Life.”

Julie (and Malcolm!) in Italy

Malcolm and I also made a trip to Italy, which was equal parts productive and delicious. Malcolm, who helped design the entire house, came along as we tackled some big decisions: choosing the external paint colour for my Little Italian House (yes, it’s time for a repaint!), selecting proper terracotta tiles for the sitting room, and doing a bit of antique shopping along the way.

And of course, we ate extremely well: pizza, pasta, and some very good rosé.

You can watch it all unfold on the Julie in Italy channel, which has just gone live.

Busy writing on Substack

I’ve been particularly prolific on Substack lately. My newest essay, “The Night a 12-Year-Old American Heiress Watched Joan of Arc,” draws on Alberta’s extraordinary unpublished diaries kept from 1887 to at least 1900.

This is the first in a series exploring her remarkable record of a life lived at the very edge of history, and I think you are going to love following along.

I also published a wonderful piece on Edith Wharton, which has been doing really well.

If you haven’t read them yet, it’s well worth your time: two fascinating women, two very different windows into the Gilded Age.

Easter at Mapperton

Here in the UK, we’ve had Good Friday and Easter Monday off, which meant a proper long weekend. All four children were down at Mapperton, and we had a wonderful meal together in the dining room, which was made all the more entertaining by the fact that the Easter trail was in full swing just outside. There’s something rather lovely about a family lunch with the sound of children hunting for golden eggs in the background.

Training update

On a more personal note, I’ve been getting some good runs in with Emma. As you may remember, Emma, Jack, and I are training for the Amsterdam marathon in October, so the miles are starting to build. It’s wonderful to have a training partner, and even better when that partner is your daughter.

As always, thank you for reading and for being part of this journey. There is so much coming in the weeks ahead—the book announcement, new Substack series, and plenty more besides—and I’m so grateful to have you along for the ride.

With love and gratitude,
Julie