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'Samuel Pepys and the Goldfish' by Karen Maitland
I love delving into the diary of Samuel Pepys. He left us a wonderful record of some great historical events as they were unfolding, but for me it is his casual references to the details of everyday...
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Shakespeare & Hollywood Story Structure
by Caroline LawrenceWhat do you do when you’re supposed to write a post about Shakespeare but you’re not half as knowledgable about the Bard as the other History Girls? Easy! You phone a friend. I...
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On The Trail of Cleopatra: Part 2 by Lucy Coats
Today, the tenth day of our our Shakespeare month, we welcome a return visitor, Lucy Coats. She talks here about the research she did for the second of the novels she has written about "The serpent of...
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Charlotte Brontë's Birthday by Katherine Clements
This month, while many of my fellow history girls are celebrating the Bard, I’ve been thinking about another important literary landmark: the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charlotte Brontë....
View ArticleThe Wise Woman and her Cow by Tanya Landman
I’m signing off as a regular monthly contributor for the History Girls so this is my last post for a while. I want to finish by thanking the very brilliant Mary Hoffman for letting me climb on board in...
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MY TOP 8 SHAKESPEAREANISMS – Elizabeth Fremantle
It's Shakespeare month on The History Girls but every month is Shakespeare month for me, as my most recent novels are set in and around his world. He even makes an appearance in my novel Watch the...
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From the Curtain Theatre to Llanwrst Catherine Johnson
Detail from the Wynn Family Memorial in St Gwrst Church dated 1559I am in North Wales. While not quite the town of my fathers and mothers, this town is the one where my Mum went to school. And because...
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The Agency, by Y S Lee
Greetings from North America! This month my American publisher, Candlewick Press, is reissuing the Agency quartet with new, extra-mysterious covers. These are closely based on the UK covers designed by...
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Crossing the Bar, by Sue Purkiss
Be warned - this is not a learned post about Shakespeare, our focus this month - though he will drop in at the end. It's one of those shoes and ships and sealing wax posts - a little bit of all sorts....
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STEALING A SHAKESPEAREAN DRESS by Penny Dolan
Dear Reader, I once stole a famous Shakespearean costume, although the crime is hard to detect. This is how my theft began: Much of my middle-grade children’s novel, A Boy Called Mouse, is set in the...
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What Country, Friends, is This? - Celia Rees
What country, friends, is this?Viola asks at the beginning of Twelfth Night. What country indeed? This is Illyria, Lady the Captain answers her. Illyria is a fantasy world, created from Shakespeare's...
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A Postcard from Slaughterford by Katherine Webb
I do love a bit of urban decay - I've always envied those intrepid folk who somehow manage to get into disused London underground stations, sewers and grand buildings, to explore what has been left...
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Aemilia Bassano: Musician, Scholar, Poet - by Ann Swinfen
Possible miniature of Aemilia BassanoAemilia Bassano was a member of a distinguished family of Italian musicians who rose to prominence in England during the reign of King Henry VIII.Henry VIII had at...
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Shakespeare and time, my time by Imogen Robertson
It may not come as huge shock to regular readers that I was somewhat of a nerdy child. I liked books more than kids my own age and found them better company. This was, to some extent, Shakespeare's...
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The Scottish Play by Kate Lord Brown
Perhaps many of our first experiences with Shakespeare are tied up with school. Watching videos of BBC productions with shaky scenery in the library on dark and rainy winter afternoons (The Tempest)....
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Tales of the Bard - Shakespeare and the History Girls by Charlotte Wightwick
Today is the 400-year anniversary of Shakespeare’s death (and the 452nd anniversary of his birth.) To mark the occasion, we’ve been blogging about The Bard all month, but today we thought we’d bring...
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THERE'S ALWAYS ONE: By Elizabeth Chadwick
It's Shakespeare month and Shakespeare is the general but not exclusive theme of this month's History Girls' blogs. Of course I may well get the sack after my particular contribution this time round!...
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Shakespeare and Children by Miranda Miller
I’m about to become a grandmother and I’ve been wondering how to pass on my enthusiasms. A long time before the dreary experience of ‘doing’ Shakespeare at school (reading the plays around the...
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Shakespeare, dreams of stardom and and my early life, by Carol Drinkwater
The Arundel First Folio - Engraving of William Shakespeare, by Martin Droeshout William Shakespeare and I were companions way back, from...
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The Passionate Pilgrim by Sarah Gristwood
One of the best-loved games in literary history has always been to spot the identity of Shakespeare’s Dark Lady - the heroine of some of the most powerful sonnets, whose magnetism and whose infidelity...
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