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Edward Burne - Jones by Miranda Miller
I’ve always enjoyed his dreamy romantic paintings. His androgynous, droopy people may not be anatomically correct but they do have great imaginative power. This exhibition at Tate Britain, which...
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Miró at the Grand Palais in Paris, by Carol Drinkwater
Ever since we moved to the south of France I have been a great fan of the artist, Joan Miró. There is an excellent collection of his work at the Foundation Maeght in St Paul de Vence, which is set in...
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Save the Children Centenary by Janie Hampton
Eglantyne Jebb (1876-1928)This year is the 100th anniversary of the founding of Save the Children, one of Britain’s most notable charitable institutions. It was started by two indominatable sisters,...
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Dream on
by Ruth Downie “And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, [the wise men] went back to their country by another route.” According to the gospel of Matthew, it was only a dream that kept...
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Height and Light by Kate Hubbard
Photo credit: Nick TuckerOur guest for January is Kate Hubbard. She is interviewed here by Charlotte Wightwick.Kate Hubbard has worked variously as a researcher, teacher, publisher's reader, freelance...
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Cabinet of Curiosities by Charlotte Wightwick – the Sargon Vase: an enduring...
Whenever I go to a museum or exhibition I play a game. What, if I could take one thing home with me that day, would I have? What I’ve realised over the years is that it is rarely the most obviously...
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January Competition
To win a copy of Kate Hubbard's fascinating book about Bess of Hardwick, just answer the question below in the Comments section."What book for you gives a flavour of the daily life of a period in...
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The "Other" Boleyns by Mary Hoffman
How many Boleyns do you know about? Well, Anne of course. The first English queen to be beheaded at the behest of her husband. And if you know of her fate, it's likely you will have heard of her...
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History in the everyday, the importance of community cookbooks - Gillian Polack
I collect cookbooks produced by communities. Sometimes they’re big volumes, stuffed with recipes from every single family that attends a primary school, sometimes the recipes are full of healthy...
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Secrets of Historical Fiction: Part 1 - By Anna Mazzola
Don't tell anyone, but I'm starting a secret series on writing historical fiction. This follows on from a highly secret talk I gave at Waterstones Gower Street with the author Anna-Marie Crowhurst....
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Jeanne Baret, first woman to circumnavigate the globe - by Katherine Langrish
Imaginary portrait of Jeanne BaretI first came across the story of Jeanne Baret in a most unlikely place: one of Beverley Nichols’s semi-fictional house-and-garden books, 'Merry Hall'. Nichols was a...
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Art 1919 - Joan Lennon
Two thousand years ago, Horace wrote "A picture is a poem without words." Here are a few of those poems from one hundred years ago, as various and as vivid as if they had been painted yesterday, by...
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Lessons From My Spinster Aunt
It’s 1975 and I’m spending the day with Aunt Annie in her little council flat. She’s very old (actually, she’s 64 but I am seven) but good fun. She shows me how to knit dolls’ clothes and lets me drink...
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A WANT OF KINDNESS by Joanne Limburg. Reviewed by Adèle Geras
Who comes into your mind when when you hear the word Queen? The first Elizabeth? Victoria? Our present queen? Cleopatra? Mary, Queen of Scots? Marie Antoinette? Catherine the Great? I am willing to...
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'The Immortal Fly' by Karen Maitland
'Lord of the Flies'Artist: Louis Le Breton (1818-186As part of the research for my medieval thriller, A Gathering of Ghosts, I spent time delving into the many legends attached to holy wells all over...
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Ways to Die in Londinium
Ways to Die...by Caroline LawrenceWhen I went back in time to look for the blue-eyed girl with the ivory knife, I never thought I would actually find her. The only reason I took the job was for the...
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Black-biled cats - Michelle Lovric
At Southwark Cathedral, the first Saturday of this month was dedicated to cats – a full day of lectures rounded off with a screening of Kedi, a lyrical documentary about Istanbul’s street cats. The...
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Sister Mary John Baptist de Lacy: The Irish Sister and the English Bishop
Three of the five Sisters of Charity who arrived in Sydney in 1838: Sr Mary Xavier Williams, Mother Mary John Cahill, and Sr Mary De Sales O’Brien. No images of Srs Mary Laurence Cator and Mary Baptist...
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Gaelic in London, a very potted and personal history
by Antonia SeniorSome years ago, I gave my husband a present. We had been hill-walking in Scotland, and he was frustrated by his inability to understand and pronounce the names of the hills. A...
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Researching with Seventeenth Century Diaries
by Deborah SwiftOne good thing about the internet is that I have access to many documents online, that previously were only available to me through archives. The most valuable sources for me are...
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