Clik here to view.
STUDLEY ROYAL WATER GARDENS AND SOUTH SEA BUBBLES by Penny Dolan.
Over this last while, “History” has given me a hard time, bringing its echoes too worryingly close. The swirl of the pandemic sings of Plague and Pestilence; the sewage regulations swamping Westminster...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bonfire Night - Celia Rees
I've been a History Girl since the very beginning and I've never landed on a really iconic date. That is about to change - I'm posting on November 5th! History Girls before me have pretty much covered...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Maybe it's because I'm a dreamer, By L.J. Trafford
A lion dreams of whatever it is lions dream of. "I have often felt the urge to start on this current project,” is the opening line of Artemidorus’ great work Oneirocritica. This fabulous book...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Keeping our heritage alive
'I need to know its story!' declared my daughter one weekend recently, as she prowled about the house, picking up this and that ancient object that had first settled into her consciousness when she was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Legend of Tarpeia - A Roman Morality Tale by Elisabeth Storrs
The dramatic stories of dark deeds, love and power surrounding the foundation of Rome are hard to resist. What particularly intrigues me is that significant political change against oppressive rulers...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Finger in the Fly Trap - Barbara Kingsolver's 'Unsheltered'. By Judith...
Barbara Kingsolver’s most recent novel, ‘Unsheltered’ explores the acrimonious debate between evolutionists and creationists in the 1870s, alongside a contemporary ‘state of the nation’ narrative...
View ArticleClik here to view.
RUSHING ABOUT: The matter of Medieval flooring by Elizabeth Chadwick.
Some time ago on a history forum, there was a discussion on medieval floor coverings. Rushes (reeds) being strewn on the floor is a frequent mention in descriptions of works of historical...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Article 0
Italian Christmas by Miranda Miller This is a photo of a Christmas market in Piazza Navona, Rome’s beautiful baroque square. Like most of you, I haven’t been able to go abroad for over two years...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Remembering Josephine Baker, by Carol Drinkwater
"France is Josephine." 1906-1975This is one of the photos I took of the facade of the Panthéon, snapped while I was queuing to pay my respects to Josephine Baker. Exceptionally, during that first...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I Remember, I Remember, the House Where I Was Born by Susan Price
Thank you to Susan Price for this guest post; Janie Hampton will be back in July. And a Happy New Year to all our readers! My mother hated me saying that I was born in a slum, but I was.Brades Row was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Joy, Happiness, Culture and Refinement - by Ruth Downie
It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when, if you didn’t know something and neither did your neighbours, you had to find a book and look it up. When I first worked in a library it was not...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In defence of ‘What If?’ by Jane Thynne
When my new novel was published this year, I became everything I had once disdained. As an avid amateur historian, I had always shied away from the field of Alternative History, or Counterfactual...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Seasons
The history of seasons isn’t always what we think it is. Using the Australian summer as a baseline, when I was a child the Christmas cards all had snow on them. The pavement melted with heat and yet we...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Talking History: 150 Years of Speakers and Speeches - Joan Lennon
Talking History:150 Years of Speakers and Speechesby Joan Haig and Joan Lennonillustrated by André DucciTemplar Publishing20 Jan. 2022aimed at ages 8-12'Two Joans and an André Talk about Talking...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why didn't I ask more questions? by Sheena Wilkinson
Since I became a History Girl I have often wished I had paid more attention to the stories my gran and great aunt Annie told me. As a child I had an endless fascination for ‘the olden days’ but I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Young Pretender by Michael Arditti Reviewed by Adèle Geras
(Before I begin , I'd like to thank Michael Arditti for sharing these pictures with me. I'm afraid that, probably owing to my own technological incompetence, I was unable to upload all of them straight...
View ArticleClik here to view.
'Keen As Mustard' by Karen Maitland
Black Mustard FlowersPhoto: Aryan MurmuThe second in my new Jacobean thriller series, Traitor in the Ice, is set in Battle Abbey in 1607, then occupied by the redoubtable dowager and recusant, Lady...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rescuing obscure historical figures by Mary Hoffman
This could be anybody. An effigy worn by time into a generic female face and form. Hundreds of years old. Where there are few written records it is hard to bring back to life historical figures, even...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rutland Roman Villa - the story of a remarkable discovery. By Caroline K....
Professor Alice Roberts from BBC Two's 'Digging for Britain' and Jim Irvine, who discovered the Roman Villa and its mosaics. © Jim Irvine.A chance discovery during a walk in the fields during lockdown...
View ArticleClik here to view.
SALT in the 17th and 18th Century #Salt #History #Artisan
by Deborah Swift Salt comes from two main sources: sea water, and the mineral halite (also known as rock salt). Salt is something we take for granted nowadays, forgetting that the term for our pay,...
View Article