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Eugene Bullard, Black Swallow of Death Catherine Johnson
Another WW1 story you might not have heard, that of Eugene Bullard, a young black man who found freedom and respect far from his homeland. I'd never heard of him until recently and found there are...
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The Hávamál
by Marie-Louise JensenI have a copy of the Hávamál, which is a collection of 1,000 year-old poems translated as 'Sayings of the Vikings'. I found useful when I was writing my Norse stories Daughter of...
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Review: All The Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
This is a big book – it’s one of those giant paperbacks, and it has over 500 pages. Yet Doerr uses language with the precision of a poet. To test this out, I’m going to open it at random and see what’s...
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POPPIES, ORANGES AND LEMONS by Penny Dolan.
November, so far, has been full of images of poppies, especially thosesymbolic ceramic poppies. One Hundred Years.However, my post today is about an earlier moment commemorating the dead. All...
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Remember, Remember... Celia Rees
I apologise for writing about an event that has passed but History Girls can't choose their dates. On November 5th, I was in Lewes, staying with my old school friend Charmian, invited to witness the...
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‘Sister of the more famous William’: some reflections on the life and career...
With comets very much in the news these past few days, following the spectacular success of the Rosetta mission, I’m been thinking some more about Caroline Herschel (1750-1848), the first professional...
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Piers Plowman and the Black Death by Ann Swinfen
I’ve recently been given the beautiful Folio Society edition of William Langland’s Piers Plowman, which has set me thinking again about the poem and its context. I’ve been intrigued by Piers Plowman–...
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Americans in Paris by Imogen Robertson
The US edition from St Martin's PressThe Paris Winter came out in US on 18th November and as I was wishing it well, it struck me how many of my guides to Belle Époque Paris were, in fact, American. The...
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Women Behaving Badly - by Kate Lord Brown
A question for you: do you have a certain type of woman who reappears often in your fiction, under the guise of different names and different faces? I was thinking about this famous quote this morning...
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GERMANY, MEMORIES OF A NATION - A PERSONAL RESPONSE, by Leslie Wilson
Disclaimer: this is only a small summary of what I saw in the exhibition at the British Museum, or of my reactions to it!Photo: Superoniskop via Wikimedia CommonsThe first thing I really noticed when I...
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KING JOHN AND THE CHARTER OF RUNNYMEDE: Some lecture notes. by Elizabeth...
I'm doing a spot of multi tasking for my feature this month - I'm posting some notes from an informal lecture I gave on the 22nd November concerning King John and Magna Carta.My lecture had a...
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HELPING MISS WORTHINGTON by Eleanor Updale
At a recent book festival, a panel of illustrious 'literary' writers won their spurs as diplomats. The event was being filmed, and the camera swung round to reveal a beaming young woman, barely more...
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Catalonia looking forward, by Carol Drinkwater
This month, on 9th November, six weeks after Scotland voted to remain a part of Great Britain, ‘a self-determination referendum’ was held in Catalonia. The citizen participation process on Catalonia's...
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Lissa Evans, author of Crooked Heart, interviewed by by Louisa Young
The concept of genres annoys me. People say ‘what kind of book do you write?” and irrational fury rises in my normally placid bosom. As Duke Ellington said of music, there’s only two types, good and...
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Lest We Forget... by Clare Mulley
There has been much in the press this month about Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, the impressive art installation of 888,246 ceramic poppies, each representing one British military casualty during...
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The Mother of us all: Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders
Fresh from her short-listing for the Children's section of the Costa Award, our special guest for November is Kate Saunders.Photo by Hannah LoveKate Saunders is a full-time author and journalist and...
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To win one of five copies of Kate Saunders' Five Children on the Western Front, leave an answer to this question in the Comments below:"Which children's classic would you most like to see a sequel to...
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You couldn't make it up: Britain's Bloodiest Dynasty by Mary Hoffman
Did you see the first episode of Dan Jones's Britain's Bloodiest Dynasty on Channel Five last Thursday? Even if you didn't I expect you can guess who they were (though strictly speaking "England's...
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Many Middle Ages by Gillian Polack
We each have our own Middle Ages. For some of us the flare of a cloak and the aggressive slight lifting of a swordhilt epitomises it. For some, it’s the awe of the cathedral and the way lines of stone...
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Freddy Spencer Chapman, by Y S Lee
Now that I’ve wrapped up the Mary Quinn Mysteries, my quartet of novels set in Victorian London, I’ve begun researching a new book. This one’s set in Malaya (now called Malaysia) during the Second...
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