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The Historical Novel Society of Australasia: its first convention - Gillian...
I attended the first Australasian Historical Fiction conference in March. I know some of you would be very interesting in a detailed report, full of life and colour. I meant to write that report, but...
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The Victorian Tattoo, by Y S Lee
In my recent novel, Rivals in the City, a young gentleman in 1861 jokes about body art: "'Perhaps I'll have your name tattooed on my arm so there's no doubt as to whom I belong', he said, tucking her...
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Here be Griffons - by Katherine Langrish
Not long ago my mother handed over to me this book, which had been my grandfather's.I suppose my grandfather must have been given it by someone else - in fact, it must have been handed down for...
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Orkney: A Historical Guide by Caroline Wickham-Jones - Joan Lennon
This is not the first occasion I've indulged my delight in guide books and Orkney (see The Elevated Limpet) but this time I've brought things right up-to-date.Caroline Wickham-Jones is an experienced...
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BEARDS: ANCIENT AND MODERN by Lydia Syson
Not far into writing Liberty’s Fire, I realised that my male characters would have to have facial hair. There was just no getting round it. Pretty much the only clean-shaven men in Paris in 1871 were...
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A strange phenomenon by Adèle Geras
I hope readers of this blog will indulge me. I recently wrote this essay about one of my literary heroines, Dorothy Whipple, and because I am keen for as many people to read her as possible, I'm...
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'Dead Men Swimming' by Karen Maitland
Legends often arise when people try to explain a landmark, like a great boulder, or something strange they’ve witnessed. The medieval idea that the dead could rise from their graves and walk among the...
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Taking to the Air: More joys of research by Christina Koning
As aviation features in my forthcoming novel, Time of Flight - the latest in a series of detective stories, set in the late 1920s and early 1930s - a visit to the Air Museum at Shuttleworth in...
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THE STARS' TENNIS BALLS by Ann Swinfen
We are merely the stars’ tennis-balls, struck and bandiedWhich way please them. John Webster (1580?-1625?), The Duchess of Malfi, IV.iv.52 The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,But in...
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The Weald and Downland Open Air Museum by Imogen Robertson
There are many good reasons to visit Chichester. There’s a fine cathedral, some brilliant architecture, and a great second-hand bookshop. The library and its staff are also lovely. I know that because...
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Good Luck Flowers by Kate Lord Brown
In many parts of the world, from the Arabian Peninsula to North Africa, South East Asia, India and Pakistan the dried and milled leaves of Lawsonia inermis the mignonette tree, also known as the...
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MUSIC WHILE YOU WORK, by Leslie Wilson
Music affects me in two ways when I’m writing. Firstly, there’s the music that actually occurs in the novel – a lot of Django Reinhart and Louis Armstrong in Last Train from Kummersdorf . When I was...
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DALLYING WITH DICE - a medieval pastime by Elizabeth Chadwick
Two men playing at a dicing table. Detail from the Prodigal Son window at Bourges CathedralNote that the chap on the right has no money and is down to his underpants.Last month I reviewed LOST LETTERS...
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The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction Shortlist by Elizabeth Laird
The Zone of Interest by Martin AmisThe Zone of Interest is a terrifying book by a writer who inhabits his subject with passion. The foul details of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz Birkenau (called Kat...
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Ancient Roman Colour Thesaurus by Caroline Lawrence
In aditu autem ipso stabat ostiarius prasinatus, cerasino succinctus cingulo, atque in lance argentea pisum purgabat. Super limen autem cavea pendebat aurea in qua pica varia intrantes salutabat."At...
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Casanova's recipe for chocolate cake - Michelle Lovric
It was Casanova’s birthday this week. He was born on April 2nd, 1725. A little celebration was in order, I thought. A man so gifted in many ways was not adverse to gifts himself. He loved novelty of...
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A Medieval Frame of Mind, by Laurie Graham
Three weeks ago I was in Leicester for the re-interment of King Richard III. Amidst the modest but beautiful ceremonies and the sincerity of the thousands who lined the streets and queued for hours to...
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Lt.Henry O.Flipper by Tanya Landman
On 19th February 1999 President Clinton officially pardoned Lt. Henry O.Flipper in a ceremony at the White House.I hadn’t heard of Henry Flipper until I started researching Buffalo Soldier. Here’s an...
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TUDOR FICTION: is it all sex and scandal?
I thought I’d run out of things to say about Wolf Hall when my attention was drawn to Laura Miller’s article in Salon, in which she responds to the TV adaptation of Wolf Hall in the context of other...
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An artist's haven by Carol Drinkwater
MirófountainI have been focusing quite a bit on war recently so I thought for this month’s blog I would choose a subject that is...
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