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Singing History with Anglo-Polish songsmith Katy Carr, by Clare Mulley
Sometimes art and music provide a much more immediate and powerful connection with the past than history books, or the biographies that I write. This month I would like to dedicate my blog to another...
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Sedition…London, 1794. Revolution creeps across the channel, coffee houses seethe with gossip and the City is full of upstarts, émigrés and speculators. But even in unruly times, daughters need...
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You're never alone with Tineola by Maria McCann
When I spotted the first one, I didn't realise its significance. Tineola Bisselliella is small, dull, and shuns light, so it isn't particularly visible, which is more than can be said for the...
View ArticleJanuary Competition
We have five copies of Katie Grant's Sedition to give away to the five best answers to this question:'Can you match a novel with a piece of music (doesn't have to be classical) that would reflect the...
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An indoor "Jacobean" theatre by Mary Hoffman
These were the plans for an indoor theatre that fell out of book in Worcester College Library, Oxford in the 1960s.A roughly U-shaped building with galleries, pit seating, a stage, musicians' gallery...
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Anatomical Artist Jan Van Rymsdyk - Lucy Inglis
In 2009 I began researching Jan Van Rymsdyk and his contribution to the medical art of the eighteenth century. Then a controversial allegation that women had been murdered by medical professionals to...
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The History of the Future - by Eve Edwards
Over Christmas I chanced upon the original Starwars films (parts now called IV and V) being shown on TV. These were the cult films of my school days - I collected the bubblegum cards and played games...
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Time and the Hour - by Katherine Langrish
My husband's Uncle Bill Dilger was a watch and clockmaker-cum-repairer, and his workshop, in a small back room in his Victorian Manchester home, was a fairy palace dedicated to Time. You walked through...
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Vermin and Vellum - Joan Lennon
It's no secret that I find having a sleeping cat near me when writing to be both soothing and inspiring, in equal measure. When I've read about how, in medieval scriptoria, monks shared their literary...
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Year of the Wood Horse - Katherine Roberts
No, not the one stuffed full of Greeks that destroyed the ancient city of Troy, although war is meant to be one of the wood horse's characteristics! This is the Chinese Year of the Wood (or Green)...
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BLASTS FROM THE PAST by Adèle Geras
There was a time, O Best Beloved, when things were not as they are today. Many of the older History Girls and many of our older readers will have a dim memory of the days when the Guardian was a...
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'Water, water everywhere...' by Karen Maitland
‘... nor any drop to drink.’ Coleridge wrote in the The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.Those of us living in the south west of England have been somewhat preoccupied with the over-abundance of water in...
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The Year of the (Green) Horse
...also Blue, Red and White! by Caroline LawrenceMy fellow History Girl Katherine Roberts recently blogged about horsey books for YA readers and got me thinking!When schoolchildren ask me what I would...
View ArticleJanuary Competition winners
The winners of the January competition are: MicheleRuan PeatClare the ReaderSpade and Dagger Please send your land addresses to:readers@maryhoffman.co.ukto claim your prizes. Congratulations!
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milk-fed zebras - Michelle Lovric
A friend of mine - a Renaissance man himself - has made an exotic purchase in Venice: a letter of passage for two zebras. He has kindly allowed me to share its contents. The letter is addressed to...
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Laurie Graham reviews One Night in Winter, a novel
Simon Sebag Montefiore ‘s most recent novel, One Night in Winter, poses this chilling question: if your children were arrested and tortured, what might they tell about you? The story takes place...
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Looking for Gladys - by H.M. Castor
Section of a pom-pom gun being reassembled by Ordnance Wrens at Liverpool (World War II)by Royal Navy official photographer, Lt H.W. Tomlin. [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsIn three days’ time a...
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STAR-CROSSED LOVE, ROYAL BLOOD AND THE TOWER by Elizabeth Fremantle
In February people’s thoughts turn to love – whether we want them to or not – so I thought I might take a brief look at some Tudor and Stuart love stories, though not the kind with happy...
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A Site Worth Seeing: People of Color in European Art History Catherine Johnson
Drawing by Durer Valentine's day? Pah! Today I write a love letter to the Internet, boon to writers and sad teens world wide. I really don't know what I'd do without it all that random clicking to find...
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Swords of Lineage
by Marie-Louise JensenTolkien's named swords in Lord of the Rings have brought the concept of swords with lineage and personality into common consciousness. Swords such as Bilbo's Sting and Elendir's...
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