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Witch Child at the American Museum, Bath - Celia Rees
Witch Child - illustrator: Nola EdwardsThis year, I received an early Christmas present in the form of an e mail that came through my web site www.celiarees.com. It was from Kate Hebert at the American...
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Slip Sliding Away - Joan Lennon
I have a cow's shin bone at the back of my freezer. (I thought of it today* because I slipped on my first patch of ice crossing over the bridge to the train station. Winter's getting real!) I...
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Can I get there by candlelight? by Lydia Syson
In the spirit of advent, I’ve been having some (very secular) thoughts about candles.These thoughts have come in the middle of a big edit. Being of a disgustingly pedantic disposition, I find it hard...
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THE PIERCED HEART by Lynn Shepherd . A review by Adèle Geras
I've written about Lynn Shepherd's novels before on this blog and here is a link to my post about her book A Treacherous Likeness.I am a big fan of her work, because what she does seems to be something...
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'Think More Dog' by Karen Maitland
St Christopher with a dog's headYou have to feel sorry for Étienne de Bourbon, a medieval Churches Inquisitor, who was sent to a remote part of Lyon in France to try to stamp out pagan customs there....
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Leighton House is a Box of Chocolates
by Caroline Lawrence One of the most maddening museums in London is Leighton House. The former mansion of Victorian artist Frederick, Lord Leighton, it is an exotic hidden gem in the leafy streets near...
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Naming the cat - Michelle Lovric
Title page to Emily M. Madddon's sketchbook containing numerous pencil and ink drawings concerning the adventures of Mouton the Cat and other animals, 1859 ‘The star of the cat,’ wrote H.P....
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The Day the Sun Stands Still, by Laurie Graham
Do you know where you are? At your kitchen sink, or as you wait at the bus stop, can you say without hesitation where the sun will rise?One of the most interesting books I read this year was Graham...
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Terrifying Teachers by Tanya Landman
Things were different in my day. Teachers were seriously scary creatures. They shouted, turned purple, threw chalk, whacked rulers over your knuckles. It was a common occurrence for disruptive...
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HISTORICAL FICTION PICKS FOR 2014 – by Elizabeth Fremantle
As the end of 2014 is approaching I felt it was time for a round-up, so here are some of the historical novels that have made an impression on me this year.I'm a die-hard fan of Sarah Waters, but with...
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Fabulous Fair Isle Catherine Johnson
Girl in a Fair Isle Jumper by Stanley Curbister, City of Edinburgh collectionI am opening my blog with this stunning portrait painted at the height of the Fair Isle craze in 1923. I love her outfit. I...
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Changing Language
by Marie-Louise JensenWhen I'm researching and reading old books, I love to find and note all the ways language has altered over the centuries. Writing my first Georgian book, The Girl in the Mask, I...
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Knitting with Mary Quant
Catherine Johnson's recent post about Fair Isle knitting really opened a window into the past for me. I don't knit complicated patterns, like Catherine; my guiding principle has always been that for...
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THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, AND ME by Penny Dolan
Just over a week ago, at a secret venue close by the Globe in London, the History Girls had a Famous High Tea. The setting was beautiful, the cakes delicious and the company delightfully chatty. What...
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King Arthur the Voyager - by Katherine Langrish
Perhaps you don't tend to think of Arthur as a voyager? Let me explain.Some of the earliest mentions of Arthur come from ninth or tenth century Welsh literature– just glancing references, as if to...
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'Up in the Air' - the joys of research by Christina Koning
Already several chapters into the third book in a series set in the late 1920s and early 1930s - the first, Line of Sight, was published earlier this year, and the second is with the publishers - I’m...
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Turn Again, Whittington by Ann Swinfen
Now we have reached the pantomime season, Dick Whittington will be striding the stage once again in the form of a girl in tights, but there was a great deal more to the real man than a cat and the...
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My book of the year by Imogen Robertson
Religion and the Decline of Magic by Keith ThomasAnyone still looking for Christmas gifts? Of course not, you are all far too well organised, but perhaps you still need something to read in front of...
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Time and Tide and Buttered Eggs by Kate Lord Brown
It is thirty years this year since the BBC adaptation of John Masefield's 'The Box of Delights' entranced a generation of school children. I remember racing home through the snow to sit beside the fire...
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CHRISTMAS TRUCE 1914 - IMAGINE.. by Leslie Wilson
Imagine if they had all laid down their arms, not just for hours, or days on some parts of the Front, though that was astonishing - The snowy silent night, after months of explosions; German trenches...
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