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Cabinet of Curiosities - the Blue and White Jar - Woman's Work? by Leslie Wilson
I found it in an antique shop; the wonderful Aladdin's cave of Stuart House which I always go to when I visit Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds. My birthday was coming up and I knew immediately what I...
View ArticleJanuary competition
Our competition are open to UK readers only - sorry!Please remember to email your responses to maryhoffman@maryhoffman.co.uk as well so that I can contact you easily if you win.To win one of five...
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Lost In The Dune: the Lewis Chessmen - by Susan Price
Knight: Lewis Chess Set Look at this little fella. Isn't he great? I imagine most, if not all, of my readers will immediately recognise him - even without the caption - as a knight...
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Crumbs in the wilderness – Gillian Polack
I’ve come later than usual this month to writing my History Girls post because I’ve been immersed in the copy-editing stage of a project. This is the moment where, as a historian, I doubt everything...
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Setting Europe Ablaze, by Y S Lee
In December, I introduced you to my historical boyfriend, Freddy Spencer Chapman. Since then, my research has led me to the more general history of SOE, the Special Operations Executive that operated...
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Sailing on the Argo - Katherine Langrish
Argo's sail against the lightIt doesn't affect the magic of legends to suppose that there may be a core of truth in some of them. In fact, it'd be odd if there wasn't, and reams of paper and pints of...
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My Foundling Girl by Joan Lennon
I can't remember when I first learned about Thomas Coram and the Foundling Hospital, about Handel's charity performances of The Messiah, or about how artists would donate work to what was in effect the...
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IT'S YOU AGAIN by Lydia Syson
Coming to the end of every book I’ve written, I always find myself regretting that I’ve not had more time to get to know some of the people I’ve encountered on the way. It’s a bit like all those...
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MY LIFE IN HOUSES by Margaret Forster. Reviewed by Adèle Geras
The first thing that occurred to me when I was thinking about this post was: I'll write a review of My Life in Houses by Margaret Forster, because even though it's not a historical novel, it is about a...
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'WHEN SHALL WE THREE MEET AGAIN' by Karen Maitland
When shall we three meet again?In thunder, lightning, or in rain? (Shakespeare's Macbeth)Often when you visit a place for one reason, you stumble on something far more interesting. Recently I decided...
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Roman Egypt at the Petrie Museum
by Caroline LawrenceI was nosing about the treasure box that is the Petrie Museum last year when I overheard a father telling his little girl, 'You know, the Romans were in Egypt after the pharaohs.'...
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Thorny sea-steeds - Michelle Lovric
This post was to be called ‘A Pillar of the Community’. It was designed as a campaigning piece about a fascinating but little-known Victorian horse hospital at Blows Yard by Borough Market in London....
View ArticleJanuary Competition winners
January competitionThe winners of Robyn Cadwallader's The Anchoress are:Andrea PeaceKM LockwoodKaren OwenSpade and DaggerAS OlivierYou can get your prizes by sending your land address to Kate McQuaid:...
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Dinner with Veronese, by Laurie Graham
Venice and all things Venetian are the province of History Girl Michelle Lovric but today I’m venturing onto her territory. The topic came to me by a rather strange route involving my sluggish brain...
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YA - A Double Edged Sword? by Tanya Landman
Long ago, way back in the golden olden days when the world was full of lovely independent bookshops and I worked in one of them there was no Young Adult section. So how did people manage? Well, they...
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CAN WE TALK ABOUT WOLF HALL, AUTHENTICITY AND KNICKERS? – Elizabeth Fremantle
The airing of Wolf Hall’s small screen cousin has provoked a good deal of discussion: is it too slow; is it too confusing; is it too dark; wasn’t Henry fatter; wasn’t Cromwell more of a monster; is it...
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Love, naturally. Catherine Johnson
Did you get a card? Is there a true love waiting to whisk you off for some romantic outing? What the hell, surely it's always better - if in those heady love drunk early days - simply to stay...
View ArticleRomantic Heroes (and how we perceive them)
by Marie-Louise JensenI'm writing this post on St Valentine's Day having just run the gauntlet of the pink-and-heart-strewn aisle of my local supermarket. And as Catherine Johnson so rightly says, on...
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The Alfred Jewel comes home: Sue Purkiss
The Alfred JewelThere is great excitement in Somerset at the moment (no, it's true; in the hills and on the levels, they speak of little else!) because for just one month, a great treasure has come...
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“Sophia,: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary” by Anita Anand.
Anita Anand’s “Sophia” tells the story of the youngest Princess of the royal ruling family of the Punjab. Yet this biography opens, not in India, but at a suffragette meeting in Caxton Hall,...
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