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Do we choose our historical periods or do they choose us? by Eliza Graham
We have an extra guest post today from Eliza Graham, who latest book is The History Room. She raises some very interesting questions for all writers of historical fiction.I’ve just been rereading...
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Bletchley Park - Celia Rees
Now, I have to admit that I'm useless at codes and cyphers which is probably one of the reasons that I'd never visited Bletchley Park. I assumed it was a couple of huts in the grounds of a crumbling...
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Manuscripts and The Master and Margarita: by Theresa Breslin
It was one of those never-to-be forgotten experiences. As a writer who is also a librarian I’m always interested, when in different countries, to visit their libraries. Recently, on the Russian leg of...
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'Finding the Words' by A L Berridge
I had one of those bad writing days yesterday. The kind when you spend an hour struggling to perfect a single paragraph, then ‘read it back at a run’ and have your eyes pop out with horror when you see...
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Circle of Shadows and Gengenbach by Imogen Robertson
Circle of Shadows is due out in paperback tomorrow, and as the novel is set in Germany that gives me a chance to talk about what a wonderful place Baden-Württemberg is to spend time. For those of you...
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WHERE DO IDEAS COME FROM? by Jane Borodale
What is writing like? Someone asked me this the other day and I’d honestly struggled to provide a decent answer. What does it actually feellike, on the whole, the act of being engaged in writing?Button...
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When My Mother met Hitler, by Leslie Wilson
I don't have a photo of my mother as a teenager, but here she is aged 20.Gerda, my mother, was the daughter of a police officer, born in Germany, but living in Graz, Austria, where my grandfather had...
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ON WRITING VICTORIAN FICTION
BY ESSIE FOXCharles Dickens working at his desk“The past is foreign country: they do things differently there.” So reads the opening lines of L.P Hartley’s The Go Between.Any writer of historical...
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A SHAMEFUL REVELATION by Eleanor Updale
Interesting, but uncomfortableI've developed an eye problem that makes reading difficult, and it's set me off wondering about the mechanics of handling books. As I labour to make out words which look...
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THE HAREM - Dianne Hofmeyr
Early Orientalist paintings seduce us with their sumptuousness. Women turbaned and bejewelled, lush garments, rooms that glitter with latticed screens filtering the light, stained glass windows casting...
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Debora, by Louisa Young
On Remembrance weekend I was in northern France, where even the railway timetables shriek of poppies and blood.I was staying at Cambrai, at a nice hotel, the Beatus, run by a M Philippe Gorcsynski. He...
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Keeping souls happy, by K. M. Grant
Every All Souls Day, my family gathers together and prays for all the dead relations. We're Catholic, so that's a lot of relations. Mass is said in the chapel at Towneley Hall, our family home until...
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"The Women who won the Wars of the Roses" by Sarah Gristwood
Our guest for this month is Sarah Gristwood, whose latest book, Blood Sisters we reviewed here on 1st October. Sarah Gristwood is the author of a number of books including the Sunday Times best-seller...
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November competition
We have five hardback copies of Sarah Gristwood's Blood Sisters to give away to those who best answer this question:"Who is the woman that you think History has most neglected, and why?"Answers in the...
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Climbing the Family Tree by Mary Hoffman
This one's a beaut, isn't it? It shows the ancestors of Sigmund Christoph, Graf von Zeil und Trauchburg. I've been thinking a lot about family trees since an email conversation with our November guest...
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Wilson, An Extraordinary Fine Figure - Lucy Inglis
Instead of generic 'desirables', the eighteenth century sees the emergence of the individual in art as never before. Certain subjects, such as Hogarth's Shrimp Girl fascinate me, as does the male...
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And they call it puppy love? - the history of boy heartthrobs - by Eve Edwards
I had a shock this afternoon. I was singing along to Disney (yes, I know - sad) because my children have been playing the excellent song from the Chinese fairytale Mulan called 'To be a Man'. (If you...
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How to be a Young Lady - Katherine Langrish
Letters to a Young Lady(by the Rev. John Bennett)…on a Variety of Useful and Interesting Subjects, Calculated to Improve the Heart, To Form The Manners and Enlighten the Understanding“That our...
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Bicycles and Revolution by Joan Lennon
As we watch these elegant, white-clad, straight-backed ladies weave genteelly in and out, it is hard to remember that they were commiting an act of rebellion. Snooks were being cocked. Gauntlets...
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Losing the (Historical) Plot – Katherine Roberts
Eowyn in the film version of "Lord of the Rings"History gives us traditions, which provide a strong foundation for our society. But eventually tradition becomes unwieldy, society moves on, and things...
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