Clik here to view.
ISABEL DE WARENNE: An exercise in joining the dots by Elizabeth Chadwick.
When an author writes about people who actually lived, one of the challenges is finding out about the secondary characters; the people who interacted with the stars of the show but have left less of a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE GNOMES? by Eleanor Updale
When I was a History student (in the 1970s and again at the turn of the century) one of the things I liked most was being buried in the library. Â In those days, part of the joy of historical research...
View ArticleClik here to view.
"After Altamira, All is Decadence" Carol Drinkwater
                      A cave painting of lions at Chauvet-Pont-d'ArcIt has been reported in the press this week that a replica of the Grotte Chauvet has been created. It will be...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Brief History of Sculpture (or, rather, of A Sculpture) by Louisa Young
Many are the strange places to which our writing leads us. Last week it led me to a four-day sculpture course for maxillo-facial reconstructive surgeons. (Those who know my books will know that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bluebells, Cockleshells Catherine Johnson
Guestling Woods East SussexThat's what started me off a walk in those woods last week, I couldn't get this skipping rhyme out of my head;Bluebells, cockleshells,Evey, Ivy, O-ver,Did you play this one?...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Settings
by Marie-Louise JensenI love having a real place to set my books. It helps me see the story playing out if I know the place. I used real settings which I named in my first two books. A little tricky,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Vincent Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam: Sue Purkiss
Vincent Van Gogh must be one of the best-known and most popular painters of them all. Who wouldn’t recognise his painting of sunflowers? Or the self-portrait with the bandaged ear? Or the picture of a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WRITING TIME? by Penny Dolan
Most of my writing is for children and when I’m asked "When's your novel set?", the easiest response is to name a historical period, such as The Victorian Age.However, on reflection, another answer...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Roundheads and Cavaliers - Celia Rees
When I was a child, as a change from playing Cowboys and Indians, we would charge about the woods and fields being Roundheads and Cavaliers. I was always a Cavalier, a choice based entirely on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
'Amy, wonderful Amy...' - a homage to my aviatrix heroine
With the 85th anniversary of Amy Johnson’s record-breaking flight from England to Australia having passed a couple of weeks ago, and the 75th anniversary of her death coming up next year, it seems an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Counter Armada and Historical Forgetfulness - by Ann Swinfen
Why do we remember certain episodes in our history and teach them in our schools, while we conveniently forget others?When I was a graduate student, I shared a room in the university with a French girl...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Music while you work by Imogen Robertson
The fronticepiece from John Playford's "Musicks recreation on the lyra viol"There are writers who can’t write without music, and those who can’t write with it. I like to have music playing as I work -...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Josa Young's 'Sail Upon the Land' by Kate Lord Brown
And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,Full often hath she gossip'd by my side,And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,Marking the embarked traders on the flood,When we have laugh'd to see the sails...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How could YOU have stopped it? by Leslie Wilson
photo: German Federal ArchiveHere are Hitler's Storm Troopers, marching triumphantly after he was made Chancellor of Germany on the 30th January, 1933. That evening, the young man who became the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
RESEARCH BOOKS - Lucky Dipping! By Elizabeth Chadwick
When I began writing at the age of 15, I didn't have any research books on the Middle Ages, nor much of the wherewithal to buy them. Â I do remember my mum asking me what I wanted for Christmas and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ALUMINIUM KNICKERS? by Eleanor Updale
I love looking at old magazines. They let slip huge amounts of unintended information about how the world used to be, and how people thought we would be living in the future.Recently, I got hold of a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Celebrating Film, by Carol Drinkwater
By the time you read this, the 68th Cannes Film Festival will have packedup its wares and the pantechnicons will be back on the road. The awards will have been handed out and celebrated at illustrious...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Paraclete, by Louisa Young
I went to church at the weekend, itself almost a historical activity in England. It was a grey and beautiful Somerset church, which exquisite windows from about 1912, in a pre-Raphaelite style. There...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Plotting the Second World War, by Clare Mulley
Earlier this month I was delighted to speak at a commemorative day at Tempsford, in Bedfordshire, being held in recognition of the RAF Special Duties Squadrons that delivered SOE's special agents...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On The Trail Of Cleopatra by Lucy Coats
Photo credit: Peter van den BergOur May guest is Lucy Coats, friend to many History Girls and lover of all things mythological. Welcome, Lucy, and thanks for filling in the background to your new YA...
View Article