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One fisherman, two saints, and three politicians… by Carolyn Hughes
I have really been enjoying finding out about the villages of Hampshire’s Meon Valley, in order to share something of their history, introduce a few of the people associated with them, and reveal some...
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The Market for Historical Fiction by Imogen Robertson
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Midsummer Nights and a Midsummer Pudding by Catherine Hokin
Oh the joys of Midsummer: that part of the year when retailers begin to count down the shopping days to Christmas and those of us who live in Scotland wonder whether we can risk turning the heating...
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The Longest Castle in Europe by Leslie Wilson
Burghausen, in Lower Bavaria, is officially, according to the Guinness Book of Records, Europe's longest, at 1,051.02 metres, ie, well over a kilometre, so walking the length of it would count as a...
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LET THERE BE LIGHT
It's a couple of days past the Solstice as I'm writing this post. Where I live in the UK, the sun will rise at 4.40am and set at 9.35pm tonight although it won't be fully dark until around 10.45pm....
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Mussolini’s Downfall by Miranda Miller
Last month I spent a few days in a state of near bliss, drifting around Lake Como in boats and swimming in the clean waters, overlooked by the foothills of the alps, pretty ochre, pink and yellow...
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La Cité du Vin, Bordeaux, by Carol Drinkwater
The Kings Arms in Askrigg was the real name of the pub we used as The Drovers Arms in All Creatures Great and Small. I returned there seven years ago when I was writing a feature for the Mail on...
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My Family & Other Typewriters by Janie Hampton
My mother Verily Anderson typing her next book in 1956, watched by my father Donald.I have always loved typewriters. Both my widowed mother and my older sister were full time writers, so I was brought...
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An Island Story by Lynne Benton
Last week I travelled back in time. My husband and I spent a night on Burgh Island, a tiny island just off the South Devon coast which contains a hotel, a pub and nothing else. It is an island only...
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Where are the Women? by Sara Sheridan
Our June guest is Sara Sheridan:Author photo by Bethany GraceSara Sheridan writes the popular 1950s Mirabelle Bevan Murder Mysteries as well as historical novels set 1820-1845. She occasionally also...
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June competition
To win a copy of Sara Sheridan's latest novel (see yesterday's guest post), just answer the following question in the Comments section below. Then copy your answer to me at...
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A Room of someone else's by Mary Hoffman
At the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester (till 16th September, then 2nd October to 9th December at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge) "Virginia Woolf: an exhibition inspired by her writings.Full...
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History in my writing, a reflection - Gillian Polack
It's a very cold winter in Canberra. I ate lemonade fruit tonight and pretended it wasn't cold, but outside right now, it's zero degrees. It's easy to think about ghosts in the dark season and about...
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Vanished: The Most Mysterious Missing Children Cases from History – By Anna...
Missing children make headlines: Madeleine McCann, Ben Needham, Jaycee Lee Dugard, Mary Boyle. They also line our bookshelves: The Girl in the Red Coat; What She Knew; Local Girl, Missing; Then She Was...
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"Graven with Diamonds" by Nicola Shulman - review by Katherine Langrish
They flee from me that sometime did me seekWith naked foot stalking in my chamber…I’ve always loved Thomas Wyatt’s poetry, so I was delighted a couple of years ago to come across Nicola Shulman’s...
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The Shadow Knows by Joan Lennon
My whole life, I have known this phrase: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" It was one of those sayings that every family accumulates and uses, sometimes without any...
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Desert Island Books -- Sheena Wilkinson
I’m at the Scattered Authors retreat this week, in lovely Charney Manor in Oxfordshire, a History Girl’s paradise. On Monday night I took part in a very enjoyable bookish version of Desert Island...
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The American Museum in Bath by Adèle Geras
It's been three days since the 4th of July and it's only a few weeks till POTUS arrives in the UK, so I felt it was appropriate to put a USA - themed post up today. First things first and I'm writing...
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'Shucks, Barguests, Grims and Whisht Hounds' by Karen Maitland
Review of 'BLACK DOG FOLKLORE' by Mark NormanI have long been captivated by the legends and folklore surrounding the spectral creature, the ‘black dog’, ever since some years ago in Nigeria when I was...
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Mysteries of the Roman Dead
by Caroline LawrenceI have been obsessed with the ancient Graeco-Roman world for over forty years. I studied Greek and Latin at Berkeley and later at Cambridge. I have been writing books set in the...
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