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Other Women, The History of the Mistress - A review by Leslie Wilson
Mistresses - it should be a topic alive with interest, and the jacket image is designed to be piquant - a black lace-edged dress suggesting opulent breasts (but no face, which has distasteful...
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Language to Suit: Some thoughts by Elizabeth Chadwick
This post was suggested to me by History Girl blog moderator Mary Hoffman after she visited my Facebook page where I post the opening and closing lines of my day's quota of rough draft on a daily...
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SO RIGHT, IT'S WRONG by Eleanor Updale
Historical drama on film and TV often gets a pasting, but there can be little doubt that the level of accuracy in the sets and styling has improved immensely over the years. We no longer have 18th...
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ALL THE PRETTY THINGS – IN FINE STYLE – Dianne Hofmeyr
Can you guess the owner of this bosom? Who knew better than the Tudors and Stuarts how to use visual effects, heightened by the play of light on textures and surfaces in movement, through day-lit and...
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Roman Princesses by Louisa Young
I am in Italy, dreaming, working, drinking, and watching the Palio on TV thanks to our glorious leader Mary Hoffman who sent me the link. As one of the great joys of being a writer is that you have to...
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The Final Possession? by biographer Clare Mulley
As a historical biographer, I aim to capture the spirit of people on paper. And yet my latest subject, Krystyna Skarbek, aka Christine Granville, has taught me to respect her freedom too...Slavers,...
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Dog Messengers in War by Sam Angus
Our guest for August is Sam Angus:Sam Angus was born in Italy and grew up in France and in Spain, in the final years of General Franco’s dictatorship. She read English Literature at Trinity College,...
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Modern Takes on the Cabinet of Curiosities - Joan Lennon
Here at History Girls, we have an occasional series loosely based around Cabinets of Curiosities. So far we've had Celia Rees' fascinating overview, Laurie Graham's succulent samovar, Paul Dowswell...
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We have five copies of Sam Angus's book A Horse Called Hero, to give away to the best answers to the following question:"Tell us your favourite novel featuring an animal as a major character and why...
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Golden boys by Mary Hoffman
I am currently reading Dan Jones's excellent book The Plantagenets. It's a huge slab of book and yet takes us only from Henry l to Richard ll, which is where I usually begin. (Apparently a second...
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From Blog to Book - Lucy Inglis
Four years ago this month I started the Georgian London blog, to discuss the lesser known aspects of the eighteenth century city. The blog gained traction quickly as it explored immigration,...
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The secret of the orange sheep - by Eve Edwards
Mark Twain was a clever chap. For research for my next book project, I am thinking about late nineteenth century writers and he bobbed to the surface today. He is not alone in his wit in this era, of...
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The Blackboard Jungle - with Dinosaurs - by Katherine Langrish
C.S. Lewis, in his inaugural lecture as Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English in the University of Cambridge, wrote with customary charm and wit of his value as a sort of living dinosaur. He...
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Manners for Men - Joan Lennon
In the third Slightly Jones Mystery - The Case of the Cambridge Mummy, young Victorian scallywag Matthew Bone gets taken in hand by Miss Sally Forth to be taught manners. So I needed to learn some...
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Have written a fairytale. Will travel? Not always! – Katherine Roberts
In less than a month, Grail of Stars, the final book of my Pendragon Legacy quartet for young readers about King Arthur’s daughter, will be published – at least it will be published here in the UK. But...
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YESTERDAY Part 3: THEATRICAL HIGHLIGHTS by Adèle Geras
The real highlight of my theatrical life at Oxford was appearing in an anti-capital punishment review called HANG DOWN YOUR HEAD AND DIE in my first year. The show transferred to the Comedy Theatre in...
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'Strike while the iron is hot' by Karen Maitland
I have just moved to an old Devonshire Cob cottage and discovered there is a blacksmith’s anvil in the garden. I’m thrilled because I love old tools. Touching something that craftsmen have used is like...
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Tips for Writing Dialogue by Caroline Lawrence
AKA The Case of the Good-looking CorpseIn real life, dialogue is usually pretty dull. But we novelists need to learn to write dialogue that sounds real but is interesting. Why?• Dialogue identifies a...
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An afternoon’s march through Venetian history - Michelle Lovric
photo by Miko SinkovicYou never know what you will find when you set out to do some location research in Venice. So one sun-drenched afternoon not long ago I threw off my crutches in an appropriately...
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The Secret of Wobble, by Laurie Graham
My theme is food that wobbles. It’s one of those things you either love or hate. My interest in jellies grew out of the creation of Jack Buzzard, Master Confectioner of Oxford Street, and husband of...
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