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Is this even the right place? Sheena Wilkinson
Last week my husband, his three sisters and I set out to walk to their late mother’s home place – the small one-storey farmhouse where she had been born and reared until she married in 1962, in a place...
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'Defiant to the End' by Karen Maitland
Remains of the Novices Dormitory in Battle AbbeyPhoto: Giogo, Wikimedia CommonsThere are many infamous people in history I am thankful I never had to encounter, but some historical characters I would...
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Ghosts on a Wire by Linda Wilkinson
We welcome Linda Wilkinson as a guest to our blog today. Her play, Ghosts on a Wire, opens at the Union Theatre on 21st September....
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‘Veni, Vidi, Vocab’: the story behind my Pocket GCSE Latin Etymological...
When in Rome… Photo © Caroline K. MackenzieI have a confession to make: although I loved Latin at school, I didn’t enjoy learning vocab. In fact, I usually left it to the last minute and would end up...
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Women of the Road - Real-Life Highwaywomen
by Deborah SwiftThere is something very appealing about the highwayman’s disguise – the tricorne hat, the cloak, the breeches and boots – and even more so when this disguise is worn by a woman....
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Rediscovering Shōgun - by Lesley Downer
‘In 1600 an Englishman went to Japan and became a samurai ...’ In the late 1970s I lived in a provincial town an hour’s train ride from Kyoto. Most weekends I’d go to visit. Each time I’d...
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Round the Mulberry Bush by Laurie Graham
The song we all know from childhood doesn’t make a lot of sense but neither does Gathering Nuts in May nor, indeed, many other nursery rhymes. I’m told the Scandinavian version is Here We Go Round the...
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Cawdor Castle: by Sue Purkiss
In the early summer of 2022, we were staying in the Cairngorm National Park. It was our first time in the north-west of Scotland, and we were wowed by the ancient Caledonian Forest, the gaunt hills,...
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CATHERINE CALLED BIRDY by Penny Dolan
Ever since opening Karen Cushmans’ Catherine Called Birdy novel back in 1996, I have remembered the freshness, energy and rebellious joy of that first page. Her determined character has been stuck in...
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Anthem for Doomed Youth - Celia Rees
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?— Only the monstrous anger of the guns.Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattleCan patter out their hasty orisons.No mockeries now for them; no prayers...
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The Petronius Maximus Guide to Plotting Your Way to Power Without Getting...
Coin of Petronius Maximus. Credit; Wikicomms/ Classical Numismatic Group, I’ve spent the last year writing a book entitled Ancient Rome’s Worst Emperors. It has been quite an education in how rulers...
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Poison is in everything… by Carolyn Hughes
Paracelsus, the sixteenth century Swiss physician and alchemist, said: “Poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy.”An engraving by Pieter...
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The Legend of Tanaquil and the auspicious flight of birds by Elisabeth Storrs
Queen TanaquilAs can be seen from the tragic stories of Lucretia and Virginia, the women of early regal Rome gained fame when used as exemplars of Roman virtues. In each case their deaths were the...
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The great camellia at Pillnitz, by Lesli Wilson
Camellias in EuropeIn early April 2009, I went with my husband to Dresden, a place I had long wanted to visit, and we took a side trip to the nearby Schloss Pillnitz. Schloss Pillnitz has extensive...
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Historical Fiction's Unique Superpower: Icebergs, Beheadings and Doom by...
Historical fiction provides the unique opportunity for a writer to choose subjects where they can assume that the reader has prior knowledge of an outcome. If a story is set on the Titanic we instantly...
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IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS - or 'Here Comes the Sun' : By...
Knowing that I had a blog post to write in the vicinity of Christmas, got me wondering about Christmas itself. My particular interest is the mediaeval period, but I thought I'd take a brief coffee...
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ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE'S BIRTH YEAR - and why it matters to this writer of...
FOR MANY YEARS it was assumed and accepted that Eleanor of Aquitaine was born in 1122. Several of her modern biographers have stated it as her birth year, but they often tend to copy and cite each...
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Exmouth Market by Miranda Miller
I’ve always loved street markets and I’m sad that now, like all retail shopping, they’re being strangled by the internet. One of my favourite streets to walk down is the pedestrianised Exmouth...
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The Ireland of my Childhood, by Carol Drinkwater
Small Things Like These by the Irish novelist Claire Keegan is my Book of the Year. There have been several books especially by women authors that have 'spoken' to me but this one hit a deep chord. I...
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Speaking Scottish by V E H (Vicki) Masters
'Speak properly,' my mother was forever reminding me as a child. By which, of course, she meant don't use Scots - either the words or the grammar. Fortunately my dad did use it, so I know and...
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