Clik here to view.
Merci pour les fleurs, as they say in France. A Tiny Quiz by Louisa Young.
We hear so much about the hatchet jobs, the insults, the meanness and jealousy. Only today on Facebook one author was complaining about another calling him a ladypart, and a journalist was having the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Women Making Waves: The Newton Women’s Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, 2015,...
Sporting history will be made this month when for the first time, on 11 April 2015, women will row in the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race on the same terms, and on the same waters, as men.Although held...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Patrick Gale: A Place Called Winter, by Louisa Young
Photo credit: David Gwinnutt.A while ago my friend Patrick Gale, who I met at a reading a million years ago, when I was a tiny newbie and he was a glamorous experienced well-known writer, mentioned an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cabinet of Curiosities: Great Uncle Andrew's Compass by Elizabeth Laird
My brother Graham inherited a kilt from our father's uncle Andrew. It was made to last forever, and so it would have done if it hadn't been for the moths which turned it eventually into a fine...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A (Very) Short Brush With Hair... Catherine Johnson
Hello there. You asked for it so I am attempting it. But I am just skirting the ends of a very unruly topic for an audience that I am patronisingly assuming knows very little. Excuse me. This is a very...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Beaux on the Stage
by Marie-Louise JensenI've always been fascinated by the phenomenon of men sitting on the stage during performances and disrupting the play, and read more about it when I researched my short story, A...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Sheriff Rides Out: by Sue Purkiss
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a service in this tiny church in the Kent countryside. It's called St Botolph's, and it's in the grounds of Lullingstone Castle. It was a vile day with strong winds,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
OCEANS AWAY AND OAKUM by Penny Dolan
The story I’m working on needs a character removed for a good while. Death is not possible, as I need an eventual re-union. So I introduced a nasty planting of stolen goods, and that was that. She was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Women Making Waves: The Newton Women’s Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, 2015,...
Sporting history will be made this month when for the first time, on 11 April 2015, women will row in the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race on the same terms, and on the same waters, as men.Although held...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Patrick Gale: A Place Called Winter, by Louisa Young
Photo credit: David Gwinnutt.A while ago my friend Patrick Gale, who I met at a reading a million years ago, when I was a tiny newbie and he was a glamorous experienced well-known writer, mentioned an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cabinet of Curiosities: Great Uncle Andrew's Compass by Elizabeth Laird
My brother Graham inherited a kilt from our father's uncle Andrew. It was made to last forever, and so it would have done if it hadn't been for the moths which turned it eventually into a fine...
View ArticleMarch Competition
We have five copies of Patrick Gale's A Place Called Winter to give away to the best answers to the following question:"Name another book that re-creates for you the atmosphere of a country in a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Queens of England by Mary Hoffman
No April Fools here - this is no joking matter.Here are two splendid volumes written by Elizabeth Norton and published by Amberley Press that will sort you out once and for all about English queens...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fashion On The Ration - Celia Rees
I recently visited the Fashion On The Ration Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum with my daughter, Catrin. We both have an interest in 1940's fashion and the exhibition did not disappoint. It gives a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
'Sitting on a sofa, playing games of chance' by Christina Koning
My latest novel, Game of Chance - the second in a series of detective stories set in the late 1920s - centres, as the title suggests, around a game of cards, specifically, Solo Whist. I chose this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bridewell, Bedlam and Bluecoats - by Ann Swinfen
If you were a pauper in Tudor England, how could you survive? Or would you survive at all?Throughout the Middle Ages, there had been two principal supports for the poor – the church and the rich...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Five hundred Years in Five London Houses by Imogen Robertson
What my world looks likeI’m at the white knuckle stage of writing my new book so am refusing to leave the house, but I’m taking the opportunity of my monthly post to give you a list of the London...
View ArticleMarch Competition
We have five copies of Patrick Gale's A Place Called Winter to give away to the best answers to the following question:"Name another book that re-creates for you the atmosphere of a country in a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Queens of England by Mary Hoffman
No April Fools here - this is no joking matter.Here are two splendid volumes written by Elizabeth Norton and published by Amberley Press that will sort you out once and for all about English queens...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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 interested in a detailed report, full of life and colour. I meant to write that report, but...
View Article