REAL LIFE VICTORIAN
A woman has taken her house back in time - by spending £10,000 to transform it into her Victorian dream home. Quirky spinster Julia Wood, 42, lives her life like a 19th century lady and can often be seen leaving her terraced house wearing ankle length velvet and carrying a parasol. The self confessed "eccentric" has transformed all five rooms of her property in Leicester with late 19th or early 20th century decor. Her lounge, bathroom, bedroom and kitchen are filled with antique furniture, fireplaces and artefacts and even nude portraits complete with lighting from the period. She has a large mahogany mantle piece in her lounge and sips tea from an 1890s crockery set she says she bought for just £10. Her kitchen, which also acts a sitting room, includes an Edwardian day bed, wood burning stove, antique tub chair, pine table and even a black fridge. The author and writer, who has lived in the home for two years, is an avid Oscar Wilde fan and says she lives her life like a character from one of this plays. She said: "I must have a Victorian or Edwardian aura. I was just born in the wrong era. But Downton Abbey has changed things lately. Sales of long gloves have gone up hugely, I understand. All of a sudden I'm in fashion.
Other great stories
AURORA BOREALIS ILLUMINATES LAPLAND
From vivid greens to glowing pinks, the colours of the aurora borealis fill the night sky above a snow covered Lapland .
TEEN WITH 100s OF BIRTHMARKS BEATS BULLIES TO EMBRACE BEAUTY
A teenage girl nicknamed 'spotty dog' by school bullies has embraced the hundreds of birthmarks that cover her entire face and body .
DAUGHTER’S FACEBOOK PLEA FOR STRANGERS TO SAVE DYING MUM
A loving daughter has set up a Facebook page in a desperate plea to strangers, to donate a kidney to her dying mum .
TUNNEL FOR VICTORY
What lies beneath this building site? Britain's great hope of winning the pre-WW2 arms race against Nazi Germany .
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: SWIMMING WITH SHARKS
Armed with a snorkel, flippers and her skimpy bikini, an intrepid female free diver swims alongside an array of reef sharks .
FISH AND BIRD TANGO
A trout manages to escape the jaws of a hungry cormorant - only to find itself back inside the bird's long beak .
NINJA RED SQUIRREL
A NINJA red squirrel cuts a dashing figure as the little fella jumps up to ten-feet between treetops in the Yorkshire Dales .
RING OF FIRE ECLIPSE IN OZ
THIS RING of fire in the sky is the annular solar eclipse that wowed our cousins down-under .
ADORABLE BEAR CUBS SHARE A HUG
ROLLING around in the snow, these young brown bears take a break from their play fight to share a tender hug with one another .
SUMMER’S OVER! SQUIRREL CLINGS TO UMBRELLA IN THE RAIN
An adorable red squirrel says goodbye to the summer as he shelters from the rain underneath a small blue umbrella .
20ST WOMAN WITH 'BODY BLINDNESS' SHEDS 10ST LIKE DAWN FRENCH
A 21st stone woman suffering from 'body blindness' like Dawn French shed more than half her body weight after a shock revelation brought her to her senses .
INTIMATE PORTRAITS OF INDIANS
An Italian photographer travelled to northern India where he visited poverty stricken suburbs and captured ordinary people in a series of intimate and expressive portraits .