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The Men Behind The Glass Sheena Wilkinson
I’m writing this on 4 November 2018 at my home thirty miles from the Irish border. A border I cross at least weekly, a border whose future I worry about daily thanks to Brexit.The British border in...
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THE OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE OF ABEL MORGAN by Cynthia Jefferies. Review by Adèle...
Cindy Jeffries is a friend of mine. My name appears in the acknowledgements of this novel. I always begin reviews of books by friends with a declaration like this because I don't want to end up on the...
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'If blood is not drawn on Martinmas Eve ...' by Karen Maitland
St Martin renounces his weapons.Artist: Simone Martini (1284-1344)This week is the feast of Martinmas which begins on the evening of the 10th November. It is a festival, like many Christian...
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Weaving Women's Stories
by Caroline LawrenceI was going to post a different blog but have just been listening to a brilliant podcast for Classics Confidential. It was specially produced in honour of the Being Human Festival...
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100 Armistice Days - Day 98 - Joan Lennon
The Armistice 100 Days project is the result of a collaboration between the Imperial War Museums and the writers' collective 26 to commemorate the lives of 100 people who experienced World War I. One...
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Nurses - the forgotten heroes of the First World War
[The text below is taken from my book, Nurses of Australia:the Illustrated Story: NLA publishing, 2018), which is now in all good bookshops.] Over the course of the First World War, more than 2,286...
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Remembering all the Harrys
by Antonia SeniorPrivate Harry Reynolds died in France on 29 October 1914, aged 25. A careerist soldier, his service was undistinguished. He appears in the army records only when he lost his equipment...
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Jersey Occupation Food in #WW2 by Deborah Swift
German soldiers on British soilI've recently been working on a novella for a collection of stories set in WW2. My book is set on Jersey in the Channel Islands. Those of you who have read The Guernsey...
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Dancing into the Modern Age: 150th Anniversary of the Meiji Restoration - by...
November 1868: Emperor Meiji enters Edo in his phoenix palanquinOn November 26th 1868, a hundred and fifty years ago this month, a vast procession three and a half thousand strong filed through the...
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Hair in History. An interview with Susan J. Vincent by Fay Bound Alberti
I am delighted to dedicate my blog post this week to a new book by Dr Susan J. Vincent, a brilliant cultural historian and past partner-in-crime when we took our PhDs together at the University of...
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Of poppies and remembrance: Sue Purkiss
It can hardly have escaped anyone's notice that last Sunday was the hundredth anniversary of the end of the First World War. (A hundred years would have seemed an unimaginably long time to me when I...
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WHAT'S IN A NAME? by Penny Dolan.
Last Sunday people stopped, stood silently for two minutes in honour of those who died in World War I and in more recent conflicts. People remembered the names of those who had died: the names carved...
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The Brontës and Glass Town Wars (Part 2) - Celia Rees
In a previous post, I described the genesis of my new novel, Glass Town Wars. In that post, I hadn't got much further than the initial idea. All writers know that, no matter how good an idea is, the...
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THE SAUCE FACTOR By L.J. Trafford
The Roman biographer Gaius Suetonius Tranquilius was born in 69AD, probably in North Africa. A friend of Pliny the Younger, Suetonius wrote several notable works. His most notable and most notorious is...
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“As thou art, so once was I” by Carolyn Hughes
I've been delving once more into the history of plague in the fourteenth century, in preparation for writing the fourth book in my novel series, the Meonbridge Chronicles. In my reading, I came across...
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Ancient World Glitter and Glamour by Elisabeth Storrs
I’m delighted to join the History Girls and hope you’ll enjoy learning a little of the history behind the Etruscans whose society has fascinated me for over twenty years of research. Compared to other...
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Charles Hamilton Sorley: The Forgotten Poet of WWI by Catherine Hokin
It Is Easy To Be Dead - Aberdeen Performing ArtsNovember's commemorations of the end of World War One have had a particular poignancy this year. Not only is it the centenary but the hundreds of acts...
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Broken Faces by Judith Allnatt
In WW1, the use of weapons such as grenades, flamethrowers and howitzers meant that war was waged on a vicious industrial scale. Those lucky enough to survive their injuries were often maimed or...
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Roger Bigod Earl of Norfolk circa 1140-1221 by Elizabeth Chadwick
Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk is the male protagonist in my novel The Time of Singing - titled For The King's Favor in the United States.I set out to write about him after being made curious by a remark...
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St Honorat, Provence by Miranda Miller
From the glitz and yachts of Cannes it’s a fifteen minute boat ride to the tiny, idyllic island of St Honorat, one of the astonishingly unspoilt Lerins islands. On a sunny afternoon in late...
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