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'Intervene in the field of the imagination' by Lydia Syson
The idea that the Spanish Civil War was primarily a ‘poets’ war’, as Stephen Spender suggested, has often been questioned in the 75 years since it ended. In terms of numbers, it was a workers’ war....
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Ecclesiastical Embroideries at Ely by Adèle Geras
I spend a lot of time in cathedrals for someone who is both Jewish and an atheist. I was in the choir at school and for eight years I sat in the school chapel, singing, hearing the words of prayers...
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'Will You Still Feed Me When I'm 64?' by Karen Maitland
You can’t open a British newspaper at the moment without finding some article about retirement Old Age Pension Book Postal Order from 1909pensions – how the newly retired are suddenly going to start...
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Dressing Your Hero
Last Thursday I had the privilege of helping to launch Wimbledon Book Festival’s Young Writer’s Competition for 2015. It was World Book Day, the day when many children are encouraged to come as their...
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Pillar of the Community or,The Strange Case of the Disappearing Gate Pier at...
I seem to be spending the golden years of my life trying to save toppled columns.But, like Gladstone’s attempts to rescue fallen women, my work has largely been in vain.For several years, I struggled...
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The Pretenders
Yesterday I printed off my boarding card in preparation for travelling to Leicester for the re-interment of Richard III - that I lived to see the day! - which reminded me it might be a good time to...
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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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Life Patterns - Celia Rees
I will admit here, I am no quilter, although I know some of my fellow History Girls are and I'm sure we will number quilters among our followers.Quilt, Jen Jones Welsh Quilt Centre, LampeterWhen I was...
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Down among the archives: the joys of research (part 2) by Christina Koning
One of the joys of doing research is the incidental stuff one comes across while doing it: snippets of information; details of the ‘way they lived then’ which, thought inconsequential in themselves,...
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Sir Francis Walsingham and the Marranos - by Ann Swinfen
Sir Francis WalsinghamThe first well organised secret service in England was the lifelong achievement of Sir Francis Walsingham. During the early part of his career, he worked for William Cecil – Lord...
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Hearing Voices by Tanya Landman
I’ve always been fascinated by different accents and verbal mannerisms. I find them so interesting that on occasion I slip into mimicking the person I’m talking to in an attempt to literally capture...
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AN ENCHANTED CASTLE – Elizabeth Fremantle visits Bolsover
I visit many historic houses when researching my novels but occasionally a place seduces me completely. One of these was Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire.I had been on a research trip to Hardwick Hall as...
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Hijacking History or the Alarming Burglar Alarm of Ye Olde Cornwall Catherine...
OK I'm starting with Poldark. Yes the new one. Calm down ladies this isn't Aidan Turner topless. This was in the paper. It's a screen grab. Cast your eye up to the house in the background. No, not...
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Unusual Recipes
by Marie-Louise JensenWhen I talk to school groups about my Georgian books, I occasionally recount tales of Georgian food. It's guaranteed to liven up any group. There's something about food from...
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Stonehenge: by Sue Purkiss
I meant to do this month's post on the Museum of Somerset, but yesterday I went to the the new visitor centre at Stonehenge, so that's what's in my head at the moment. It's also kind of the period that...
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And Today's Saint is . . . By Penny Dolan
I've spent the last five days in bed, struck down by some kind of World Book Day induced bug, and don't think I've felt so bad since. . . when? No matter, because this morning, I'm beginning to feel...
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Tears of the Gods by Kate Lord Brown
Driving along the Corniche the other day, it struck me that it is one of the few places left in the city where you can still see history living side by side with the towering skyscrapers springing up...
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(HOW) DARE WE WRITE HISTORICAL NOVELS? by Leslie Wilson
David Starkey has announced in various media that Wolf Hall is a 'deliberate perversion of history', (though he has neither read the books nor seen the television adaptation so I do wonder how he can...
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LOST LETTERS OF MEDIEVAL LIFE: Some thoughts from Elizabeth Chadwick
LOST LETTERS OF MEDIEVAL LIFE: English Society 1200-1250. Edited and translated by Martha Carlin and David Crouch: University of Pennysylvania Press ISBN 9 780812 223361I love historical reference...
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