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Bath in 1713
by Marie-Louise JensenDuring the Bath Literature festival a couple of months ago, I bought a ticket for a guided walk with the theme 'Bath in 1713'. As this is just two years before my book 'The Girl...
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Heather's Bracelet: by Sue Purkiss
I have been teaching creative writing classes in my town, Cheddar, for a few years now. Heather was in the first class I taught, and she's been with me ever since. She's one of the busiest people I...
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The Case of the Disappearing Victorian and the New History Curriculum: by...
Queen Victoria would not be amused. I’m fairly sure the many small regional museums won’t be, not one bit. Something is going on right now, here in schools in England, that makes me angry. Not huge...
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What's On Your Desk? Celia Rees
photograph by Joanna KendrickEvery summer, I go off to this place, Charney Manor in Oxfordshire, with other writer chums. This annual 'retreat' is open to all members of the Scattered Authors' Society...
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History Girl on holiday with her guy
by Theresa Breslin So it’s holiday time, and all too often the long-suffering Mr B is dragged off on what actually is a thinly disguised research expedition for a book. This requires him to plan and...
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'Spooky' - Serendipity in Historical Fiction by A L Berridge
HEAT. It's bad enough for those of us indoors, but as I sit sweating unattractively over my keyboard I can't help thinking of the British soldiers who fought under a baking sun at the Battle of the...
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Recovery Position - Imogen Robertson
There are several advantages in being married to an itinerant cheesemonger. One is that because my husband, Ned, has a portfolio career in cheese, he also does some cheese making and that’s how we...
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KISSING COMFITS AND SNOW ERINGOES: APHRODISIACS, by Jane Borodale
Eryngium maritimum © Valerie Hill Effective, practical enhancement of the art of love has been sought after since ancient times. Roots of sea holly or Eryngium maritimum were collected on a large scale...
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Great-grandparents, by Leslie Wilson
Eight people who I never knew, but they are crucial to me, and part of me; I carry bits of their bodies around with me. And there are other things I wouldn't know about; mannerisms, foibles - all part...
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Sweet as Candy: A few notes on sugar in the Middle Ages
A few months ago a reader wrote to me to say that I mentioned sugar in one of my novels and she wondered how they had extracted sugar from sugar beet in the 12th century. I wrote back explaining that...
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DEATH ON A PLATE and other stories from 1960, by Eleanor Updale
There's a well-recognised phenomenon, written about by Simon Jenkins, that everyone looks back to a golden age, and that for most people that age is about fifty before the time they are in. I've just...
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A DIP IN THE SEA – Dianne Hofmeyr
Muizenburg Beach, South Africa 1950My father was a lifesaver, a surfer and an amateur early photographer. In an old shoebox I discovered heaps of negatives and sepia photographs some still in their...
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Pressing things by Louisa Young
I am rather pressed. I am going away. Yippee!As a girl, I had one of those square flower presses with twiddly screws in the corners, and passed my innocent afternoons trying to recreate the beautiful...
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Naming myself, by Katharine Grant
Blog followers may notice that I've changed my name. There's good reason for this. I don't want children picking up my first novel for adults - Sedition, to be published by Virago UK and Henry Holt...
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The Cabinet of Curiosities - Celia Rees
This engraving in Ferrante Imperato's Dell'Historia Naturale (Naples 1599) is the earliest pictorial record of a Cabinet of Curiosities. The original Cabinets were not cabinets at all but rooms and...
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We have five copies of John Guy's new book, The Children of Henry Vlll, to give away for the best answers to the following question:"Who is your favourite Tudor royal and why?"Competitions are open...
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Name that prince(ss)! by Mary Hoffman
Willy, Willy, Harry, Steve, Harry, Dickie, John ....Bear with me. I know many of you will be sick of the subjects: Royal baby; naming the Royal baby etc etc. There's a new baby in my life, my first...
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Mary Lacy: The History of The Female Shipwright
In 1773 Mary Lacy, a married woman in Deptford published her autobiography, The History of the Female Shipwright. It was an instant success, but soon forgotten. Of its author there is no more trace...
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A short history of shopping therapy - by Eve Edwards
It is probably a familiar moment for many if not all of us: you've had a bad day, so you just pop down to the shops and cheer yourself up with a little shopping therapy, buying something small and...
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