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Rossini and a Couple of Cats - Joan Lennon
Composer Gioachino Rossini 1865Rossini (1792-1868) - we love him for The Barber of Seville, Otello, The Thieving Magpie, William Tell and so much else. He was a prolific composer, who is said to have...
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Other People's Rubbish or The Charm of Ephemera
It started with a button jar. ‘I can’t quite bear to throw it out,’ my friend Susanne said, ‘but I must be sensible…’I was a strange child. I hung round at the end of jumble sales to buy the ragtag...
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Gaetano Meo and his great-granddaughter. By Adèle Geras
Before Christmas, I spoke to my friend Helen Craig about her great-grandfather, Gaetano Meo, and I'm also grateful to Sarah Timewell for her help with much information about him. He's the handsome...
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Wilkie and "that all-potent and all-merciful drug" by Karen Maitland
Wilkie Collins in 1874, aged 50Photographer: Napoleon SaronyToday, 8th January, is the birthday of the Victorian novelist and playwright, Wilkie Collins, born in 1824 and famous for the enduring...
View ArticleAncient Wisdom & New Year’s Resolutions
by Caroline LawrenceI read ancient authors almost daily and am always surprised by how relevant they are. (Usually!) Here are my ten New Year’s resolutions based on ancient authors, some with links to...
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Gibbering light - Michelle Lovric
Christmas in Venice is a season of low winter light gibbering on the stones under the bridges. The Venetians call this phenomenon ‘gibigiana’. The Italian word for it seems to be ‘sbarlusso’.The winter...
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Bathsheba Ghost: Convict Hospital Matron
There were opportunities in the penal colony of New South Wales for a smart woman to overcome her convict past, forge a new career and become one of the most highly paid women in the colony. Bathsheba...
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Extreme fasting - St Simeon the Stylite
by Antonia SeniorI am hungry. Really, really hungry. Yup, it's January diet time. Like countless other podgy, Mum-tummed dipsos I've started fasting. Christmas, and the evil trinity of craft beer,...
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The Plight of the Moriscos in 17th Century Spain
by Deborah SwiftSeventeenth Century Persecution in SpainThe Spanish Inquisition is associated with the persecution of the Jews but it is not common knowledge that Muslims were also tried and tortured...
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The Dawn Comes Up Like Thunder - by Lesley Downer
Dawn over the Ayeyarwaddy (Irrawaddy) at Mandalay'What will our descendants think of us when they read that the British banished the King of Burma, annexed his country, and proceeded to govern it by...
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The gardens of Castle Howard by Fay Bound Alberti
Castle Howard, North Yorkshire Over the festive period, my friends and I visited Castle Howard, a stately home in North Yorkshire. I am not a fan of country estates as a rule; I prefer finding out...
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A memory trail, by Sue Purkiss
I've vaguely noticed on social media lately that there's been a lot of stuff about de-cluttering. This very morning, someone posted a picture of a smiling lady called Marie Kondo saying: "Ideally, keep...
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ONCE UPON A RIVER by Diane Setterfield. Review by Penny Dolan.
The opening chapter of ONCE UPON A RIVER led me quietly and confidently into a long and satisfying story. I was not disappointed. Diane Setterfield’s third novel takes place in the late nineteenth...
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My Writing Resolutions - Celia Rees
New Year is the time for Resolutions, or Intentions, or Affirmations, or whatever you want to call them. This is my first post of the New Year, so I'm going to share some of mine. They are not in any...
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The Art of Flattery by L.J. Trafford
Statue of Domitian in Ephesus Museum.Photo by Carole RaddatoWorking on my current book I have been researching and reading an awful lot of Roman panegyric poetry, in particular Martial and Statius, who...
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Warnford: a village of two halves? by Carolyn Hughes
After last month’s excursion into the topic of language in historical fiction, today I am continuing my series of blogs about the history of the Meon Valley in Hampshire.I have mentioned the little...
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Neo-Classical Revivalism by Elisabeth Storrs
Castellani Medusa Cameo and Micromosaic Egyptian NecklaceI’m not the only one who admires the exquisite jewellery of the Etruscans (see my earlier post on Ancient World Glitter and Glamour). In the...
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Europe's Grandmother: the Death of Queen Victoria by Catherine Hokin
Victoria, Albert & their 9 childrenIt's hard to write anything at the moment without the current political turmoils shouting to be heard. I'm deep in WWII and the parallels are strong enough to be...
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England's First Refugees - The Huguenots - by Rosemary Hayes
Huguenot scholar on the intolerance of Louis IVI have a lot of information about my two grandfathers and their antecedents, going back hundreds of years, and a certain amount about my paternal...
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One Hundred and Eighty! Elizabeth Chadwick and one of her leisure pursuitsThe au
The author having a practise.In my day job I'm a best selling author of historical fiction, passionately steeped in the Medieval period.In some of my leisure time, I spend Tuesday evenings as an...
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