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Imagining Eglantyne, by Clare Mulley
‘We have to devise a means of making known the facts in such a way as to touch the imagination of the world.’ Eglantyne Jebb Poster for Anne Chamberlain's production, EglantyneEarlier this month I was...
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A Want of Kindness by Joanne Limberg
Photo credit: Chris HadleyOur July guest is Joanne Limberg, talking about her début novel, A Want of Kindness, about Queen Anne. Joanne Limburg began her writing career as a poet, publishing two...
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Our competitions our open to UK Followers only - sorry!To win one of five copies of Joanne Limburg's A Want of Kindness, post an answer to the question below in the Comments section and send a copy of...
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Cleo rides again or How to have a historical launch party by Mary Hoffman
You remember that our May guest was Lucy Coats? She talked about the masses of research she had done for her latest YA novel, Cleo (published by Orchard). Well, last month the book was thoroughly...
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Australia (and my family) from the 1920s - Gillian Polack
The anniversary of my father’s death is coming up. I will light a candle in his memory and I will tell bad jokes so that his sense of humour is not forgotten. I will miss him, as I always do. This year...
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Meeting Mr. Punch, by Y S Lee
As one of the international History Girls, I didn't grow up with Punch and Judy. I knew vaguely who they were, and thought I understood what the show signified: children's street entertainment. What...
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No Passareu! - Katherine Langrish
A few years ago we used often to stay with friends in Montpellier in the south of France (it's a fabulous city) and each time we went we would make a trip to the possibly even more fabulous walled...
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Favourite Finds by Joan Lennon
Charity shops - second-hand bookstores - you never know what you might stumble across in them. Books you didn't even know existed but that still somehow manage to draw your eye from in amongst all the...
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Ravilious: War Artist by Lydia Syson
On 31st of this month, a wonderful and rare Ravilious exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery comes to an end. Since this summer is also the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, I hope nobody...
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TWO ALICE ANNIVERSARIES by Adèle Geras
"And what is the use of a book, thought Alice, without pictures or conversation?"This has long been one of my favourite quotations from a favourite book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis...
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HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW by Karen Maitland
Entrance to the synagogue on RhodesPhoto: Wkinght94In recent months the attention of Europe’s finance ministers has been focused on Greece and I was delighted to see a letter in the national papers...
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Numinous by Caroline Lawrence
numinous(adj) having a strong religious or spiritual quality; indicating or suggesting the presence of a divinity.e.g. “the strange, numinous beauty of this ancient landmark”Sunset at Lake Tahoe,...
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Mouths of Truth - Michelle Lovric
It is so hot in Venice that the cats are melting. The usual silly season stories abound in the city's press. But one story caught my eye this week, seeming more profound: the Gazzettino newspaper...
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All Aboard! by Laurie Graham
Today’s post will be the first in a series linked to my new novel, The Night in Question, which will be published in October. The book deals tangentially with the Whitechapel Murders of 1888 and...
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The Curious Tale of the Lady Caraboo A review by Tanya Landman
I’ve always been fascinated by the real life story of Caraboo – a warrior princess from the tropical island of Javasu, captured by pirates, taken half way around the world before she escaped from them...
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Manda Scott's INTO THE FIRE reviewed by Elizabeth Fremantle
Manda Scott wrote a number of critically acclaimed crime novels before turning to historical fiction but with her latest release, INTO THE FIRE, she appears to have created a work that perfectly...
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The Day The World Turned Day Glo Catherine Johnson
The first punk gig I went to was X Ray Spex at Hornsey School of Art. The college had closed down for good and the building was empty. I have tried to check the year but can't find it, 77 I think, I'd...
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The Church that was Buried
by Marie-Louise JensenOne of the characteristics of northern Jutland in Denmark is that the peninsula is formed of sand, not bedrock. And sand shifts with wind, tide and currents.Just south of Skagen,...
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Adventures in Europe with Patrick Leigh Fermor: by Sue Purkiss
In 1933, Paddy Leigh Fermor was eighteen. The son of separated parents - his father was a scientist working in India, his mother had brought him up by herself in London. He had virtually no money - he...
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THE FACE OF AN ICON by Penny Dolan
Some faces haunt you for life. Near my desk, among a variety of women’s pictures and portraits, hangs a small icon of the Virgin. She was a prize won at my convent school, where the nuns ran a class...
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