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THE MAHARAJAH DULEEP SINGH
BY ESSIE FOXSadly, I'm going to have to leave The History Girls, for a while at least. The reason for this is that I need to write a new novel by June of this year - and as that novel is now consuming...
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WHAT IS THIS? by Eleanor Updale
All the fuss about the discovery of Richard III's remains has set me off thinking about the treasures that lie beneath our feet. To be a treasure, the find doesn't have to be grand. I once stayed in...
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Stories that Float from Afar – Dianne Hofmeyr
Slipstreaming Celia’s wonderful blog Shadows in the Cave, I’ve kept to the realm of the cave with Stories that Float from Afar. An entrance into a coastal cave in the Robberg Peninsula in South Africa...
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The Names of the Ladies of the Roses, by Louisa Young
'I should like to know the true identity of this Madame Lauriol du Barny who gave her name to such a sumptuous flower. I assume she must have belonged to the haute cocotterie of Paris. Or perhaps I am...
View ArticleEnd? What end? by K. M. Grant
Writers are often asked how we feel when we've finished writing a book. Is there a sense of relief? Are we sad? Do we actually type 'The End'?Having answered this question in schools many times, it...
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Two memorials
Piazza della Signoria, Florence. Photo credit: SalikoI first set foot in this (normally much more crowded) square when I was twenty, on the month in Florence that has shaped so much of my adult life...
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I Thought All Was Over - Lucy Inglis
We are re-watching Band of Brothers. My husband loves it as he loves all military history but I find it morbid and difficult. However, one such remarkable account from the field at Waterloo has long...
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History is annoying - Eve Edwards
I am annoyed with history this morning. It doesn't behave. I plan out a fabulous scene, even begin writing the blighter, and then discover a little later on that it was impossible. I suppose I could...
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The Death of a Peer, or, Lord Lyttelton's Ghost - by Katherine Langrish
Thomas, Second Baron Lyttelton“Sir,” said Dr Johnson to his friend Dr Adams, “it is the most extraordinary thing that has happened in my day.” He was speaking of the mysterious circumstances attending...
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Harriet Who? and the Education of Girls - Joan Lennon
I had the feeling I'd heard the name some place, sometime, but that was about it. When, as part of the 26 Norwich Writers project,* I was paired with 19th century writer Harriet Martineau, I was...
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From Anne Frank to War Horse: children's historical books sell! - Katherine...
I’ve reached that stage between projects when I don’t quite know what I’ll publish next. I’ve got several files of half-worked ideas, including two novels not yet contracted, mostly historical fantasy...
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A Treacherous Likeness by Lynn Shepherd. Reviewed by Adèle Geras
Before you go on reading, do click on this link and especially on the little film at the end of the description of the book. Lynn Shepherd herself speaks for 8 minutes and tells us very well and...
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'I Pronounced this Pig Guilty of Murder' by Karen Maitland
With horsemeat much in news recently, it’s made me think about way animals were regarded in past centuries and what it reveals a lot about how people viewed their world and their place in. Take, for...
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The Mentor & the Talisman by Caroline Lawrence
Pixar's masterpiece, UPMarch is one of my busy months. I travel to schools in the UK almost daily to tell kids about how I get ideas, do research and structure my books. Structure? Yes! Story structure...
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Of saurs and simians and sudden death – Michelle Lovric
Few tourists realize that Venice, perhaps unfairly stuffed with so many other attractions, also boasts an extremely splendid Museum of Natural History in the old Fondaco dei Turchi on the Grand Canal....
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A Little Irish Mystery. by Laurie Graham
As it's St Patrick's Day next week I thought I should post an Irish story: the disappearance of the Irish Crown Jewels.First I should make clear no actual crowns were involved. The so-called Crown...
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“Obscure the place, and uninscrib'd the stone,” by H.M. Castor
Portrait of Charles I by Anthony van Dyck [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsFirst, a confession: I owe the idea for today's post entirely to my aunt Ruth Hayward, who is currently involved in some...
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Fourth Time lucky: The year of the four emperors. If at first you don’t...
Rarely in ancient history has a set of events been so widely recorded as the cataclysmic eighteen months that became known very soon after as The Year of the Four Emperors. Hardback: publication date...
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A Kid, Two Farthings and The East End at My Feet Catherine Johnson
I'm moving after 30 years in the same house in East London. And although I was born a few miles north of Bow Bells I thought I'd say goodbye with some of my favourite East End book covers. When I began...
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Smugglers Ahoy!
by Marie-Louise JensenI had a new book published on March 7th! No prizes for guessing what it's about.Smugglers were so much fun to research. I began with my memory of the Rudyard Kipling poem A...
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