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THE HISTORICAL HOUSE SERIES....Redux. By Adèle Geras
In 2004, which seems a very long time ago, even though it isn't really, three books were published by Usborne in the Historical House series. These were: LIZZIE'S WISH, 1857 by me, POLLY'S MARCH 1919...
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A Peck of Poison by Karen Maitland
It’s only when I have visitors or repairmen in my house and I see the expressions on their faces that I realize the contents of my bookshelves are not what most people would regard as ‘normal.’ I’ve...
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Competition winners
We have four winners of copies of Blood Sisters in our November competition:Derek BirksRuan PeatWhisksLindaTo get your prizes, please contact Katherine Josselyn: katherine.josselyn@harpercollins.co.uk...
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Musings on the Ancient Roman Mindset
by Caroline Lawrencedo I have an internal monologue?Over the past dozen years I have been writing books for kids set in the Roman world of the first century CE.I try to write books that children can...
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Hints for my Christmas Stocking – Michelle Lovric
This blog is for any patron of the arts, well-wisher, vecchio amante danaroso letterario( ‘literary Sugardaddy’) or rich uncle wishing to curry favour with his favourite niece or anyone else waiting...
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The Town Waits, by Laurie Graham
When I was a little girl our Christmas cake, baked and iced by my mother according to an invariable schedule, was decorated with five little plaster figures, muffled up like carol singers. 'They're the...
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Anyone for snowballs? by H.M. Castor
Detail from Allegory of Winter by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (1285-1348)[Public Domain] via Wikimedia CommonsThough financial paperwork would not usually be a favourite topic of mine, accounts made centuries...
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The Black Count Catherine Johnson
I have been so thrilled by the Tom Reiss biography The Black Count, that I had to write about it.I always knew Alexandre Dumas the novelist, that's him above, was mixed race. I didn't know that his...
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The Turnspit Dog
by Marie-Louise JensenToday, I'm staying only vaguely with my theme of Georgian Bath. I wanted to write something seasonal this month, about Christmases past. But the fashionable Georgians did not...
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'Just click your heels together three times...' by Sue Purkiss
So many things go to make a good book, don't they? Characters, dialogue, ideas, perfectly juxtaposed words, pacing, suspense, setting - and that's just a start. But what about films - what makes a...
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"There is no story here." Penny Dolan
It was late November 2012. The Indian sun shone, breaking through the trees that sheltered the path.The steps were too uneven for a good pace, assuming any of us could. Some had numbers written on...
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Christmas Past - Celia Rees
Christmas is a time of nostalgia, of looking back. It triggers memories of childhood, of the past, both recent and distant. I was a child in the 1950s. It is odd to think that my own childhood is now...
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The Hierarchy of Hats and other scavengings: by Theresa Breslin
At times I think of myself as being more of a scavenger than a writer. Maybe scavenger isn’t quite the right word. When I checked the dictionary it told me that ‘to scavenge’ was to search for...
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'War and the Spirit of Christmas' by A L Berridge
It’s hard trying to think about Christmas when you write about war. My characters may be fiction but the war they fought is not, and it feels rather heartless to abandon them up to their knees in...
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Gifts by Imogen Robertson
I hope you’ll all forgive a not very Christmasy posting this month from me. It is about gifts though, how they are passed on generation to generation and the stories they carry, so I hope that’s close...
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HIPPOCRAS, by Jane Borodale
The first day of the holidays, and in celebration of the winter feast I thought I'd look at recipes for hippocras - that stalwart festive cordial wine popular since medieval times.Taking its name from...
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Dormice and other Saturnalia Gifts
by Caroline Lawrencea dormouse?Marcus Valerius Martialis (AKA Martial) is one of my favourite Roman poets. His acerbic, gossipy, sometimes shocking poems were a kind of ancient Sex in the City for the...
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A MERRY CHRISTMAS, ONE AND ALL!
BY ESSIE FOX Santa Claus by Essie FoxBefore taking up writing novels I worked as a commercial illustrator, often selling to greetings cards companies, and the Santa Claus shown above was one of my...
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PLAING, DANSINK & SINGIN OFF FYLTHY KARRELLS by Eleanor Updale
Merry Christmas everybody! Scottish Presbyterians having a good time - From The llustrated London News 1855When I was young, my mother told me that I was very lucky to live in England because the...
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