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Talking About Our Generation by Kate Lord Brown
How do you define historical fiction? Is it fiction set in the past? Over thirty years ago? Or set before the living experience of the writer? I've just finished the new draft of a novel set in the...
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NEWS ITEMS ON THIS DAY IN 1914 by Leslie Wilson
Local pre-war cricket heroessource;wikimedia imagesYou might have read in your newspaper, a hundred years ago today, that Black Jester had won the St George's Stakes at the Liverpool Races; Yorkshire...
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Monkey Business by Elizabeth Chadwick
In 1158, Thomas Becket, chancellor to King Henry II set out on a diplomatic mission to France aimed at promoting a marriage alliance between the two royal firms, and also one suspects playing a game...
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Dancing Homer by Caroline Lawrence
Zeus's box of trinkets and propsLast week I saw two dramatic stagings of Homer's Iliad. The first was Simon Armitage’s The Last Days of Troy at the Globe. It was interesting, but never gripped me. I...
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BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE MUSEUMS by Eleanor Updale
It was only an hour, but what fun. With a little group of local history fans, I was allowed into the store where Edinburgh Council keeps the exhibits for which it can't find space in the city's many...
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The Tree of Peace by Carol Drinkwater
I live on an olive farm in the south of France. Our property and its 300 olive trees have been an on-going source of inspiration for me and my writing for more than two decades. Four books (The Olive...
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Something to Do, by Septima - by Louisa Young
Did you have this? Did you? I looked at it today for the first time in decades and I realised: I am history. Things are not now as they were when this fat, heavenly book was normal. (Also, can you see...
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A Comic Strip War, by Clare Mulley
Can war be seriously examined through art inspired by American comic strips? As a biographer I am fascinated by the different ways in which human stories from the past can be effectively examined and...
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Life and Love during the Occupation, Amsterdam - by Sue Reid
Our guest for July is Sue Reid, whose work is always triggered by a historical event or character.Sue Reid has always had a passion for history, and for writing stories about it, but it wasn’t until...
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Cabinet of Curiosities, by Laurie Graham
This was a tool of my grandfather's trade. Any guesses? My childish impression of my grandfather was of a man who knew lots of people, most of them with funny names, and that he sometimes had rolls of...
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Give a good answer to this question in the Comments below and win one of five copies of July guest Sue Reid's novel, By My Side.What place, monument or building most inspires you with a sense of its...
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The Secret World of Christoval Alvarez review by Mary Hoffman
Ann Swinfen is no stranger to this blog; indeed she has become one of our invaluable team of Reserves - that group of stalwarts who write "anytime blogposts" which we can use if there is an emergency...
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A Witch Queen in The Gods' Mound? - by Susan Price
The Oseberg ShipA guest post today from one of our valued History Girls Reserves, Susan Price. It will fascinate anyone who has seen the reconstruction of the longship at the Vikings exhibition in the...
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'Gentlemen, we are at war' - the Great War begins - by Eve Edwards
Winston goes to warHow do wars start? Usually, far too optimistically. On 4 August, a hundred years tomorrow as if you needed reminding, when Germany failed to reply satisfactorily to Britain's...
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A Man Who Looks On Glass - Katherine Langrish
A hymn we sang at school was George Herbert's poem 'The Elixir,' set to a simple tune. One of the verses which always stayed with me was this:A man that looks on glass, On it may stay his...
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Of arms and the man I sing by Mary Hoffman
This week and month, we are bound to be thinking of the onset of the Great War a hundred years ago. At a time when hideous atrocities are being committed against civilians and combatants in many parts...
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Historic Heart of the English Riviera - Katherine Roberts
You can travel halfway around the world to see historic sites, yet it’s all too easy to ignore what is on your own doorstep. Since my home town of Paignton has just been rebranded the “Historic Heart...
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THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY....which is not a tapestry. BY Adèle Geras
Most people know the main facts about the Bayeux Tapestry. First, that it isn't a tapestry at all but an embroidery. It was made, probably near Canterbury in the years between 1066 and 1077 when Odo,...
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'Punishing the gods' by Karen Maitland
Revering gods in a Chinese Joss HouseI have just been reading the wonderful novel ‘The Good Earth’ by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1932. Pearl...
View ArticleJuly competition winners
July competition winners:Sue PurkissPaul WhitfieldRuan PeatRoz CawleyAlayne Barton To claim your prizes, please send your land addresses to David Sanger: dsanger@scholastic.co.ukCongratulations!
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