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What's in a Letter by Julie Summers
I’ve always been fascinated by communication. Not just in its literal form but in what it says about the human condition and how important it is to people to communicate and be communicated with....
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Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen? by Alison Weir
Our April guest is Alison Weir, a prolific historian and novelist. We welcome her warmly to The History Girls.Alison Weir is the top-selling female historian (and the fifth best-selling historian...
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April competition
To win one of five copies of Alison Weir's new book, just answer this question in the Comments section below:"Which of Henry VIII's wives would you most like to meet, and why?"Then copy your answer to...
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History and The Greystones Press by Mary Hoffman
Now that Shakespeare Month on the History Girls is over, some of you may be breathing a sigh of relief! But I'm going to crave your indulgence a little further. You see, on 23rd April, the big...
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Eliza Rose by Lucy Worsley - a review
In our current competition, you can win a prize of Alison Weir's new book on Katherine of Aragon by choosing which of the six wives of Henry Vlll you'd like to meet and why.(Closing date 7th May). One...
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The right to dig, by Vanora Bennett
After 13 years in increasing despair at never getting to the top of my London borough’s apparently endless allotment waiting list, I applied to another London borough a few weeks ago and immediately –...
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The Strange Paradox of the Fox-Hunting Poets - by Katherine Langrish
John Masefield, 1912Back in 1919 John Masefield published a long narrative poem called ‘Reynard the Fox’, neglected in this day and age not only because it’s all about the now controversial subject of...
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The Voice of the Carnyx was Heard in the Land - Joan Lennon
A few months ago, Mary Hoffman posted about The Celts: Art and Identity - a fabulous exhibition at the British Museum. Luckily for me, the exhibition then headed north, to the National Museum of...
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Rational Dress by Lydia Syson
Seven years before Emily Davison stepped out in front of the King's horse at Epsom for the cause of women's suffrage, this photograph of a group of Maori dress reformers was taken in in Waipawa, New...
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Me and The National Trust by Adèle Geras
Recently, I visited Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire with Helen Craig (illustrator of the Angelina Ballerina books) and our friends, Anne and Philip Stott. The Stotts will be known to readers of my posts...
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'A Grave Story' by Karen Maitland
Maggoty Johnson's grave. Photographer: Peter JohnsonOne night when I was child camping up on the moors on Dartmoor, I rolled out of the shelter in my sleep and woke up a few feet away to find myself...
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Burning Cernunnos at Butser
by Caroline LawrenceIt was a chilly spring afternoon in the Iron Age village. Hundreds of men, women and children gathered near wattle and daub roundhouses with conical thatch roofs to eat, drink and...
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Doing the salami and swallowing the toad - Michelle Lovric
Every language is most alive in its idioms, and none more so than Italian, where everyday expressions are rich in colourful metaphor and hilarious visual images. Most of my novels are populated by...
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Peaky Blinders: Fact or Fiction? by Katherine Clements
Peaky Blinders returned to our screens last week. One of the most critically acclaimed dramas in recent years, the show has amassed an army of loyal fans, including many who would never usually watch a...
View ArticleNo post today
Owing entirely to the incompetence of blog founder Mary Hoffman, there is no new blogpost today.Normal service will be renewed tomorrow.Apologies
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WHO IS THE GIRL IN THE GLASS TOWER ? Elizabeth Fremantle
Arbella as a girlIn advance of the publication of my new novel I thought I'd introduce my extraordinary protagonist, Lady Arbella Stuart.Through her great grandmother Margaret Tudor, and as the nice of...
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This Orient Isle by Jerry Brotton Review Catherine Johnson
Just last week that wonderful, massive, all encompassing metropolis, London, elected its new mayor. Sadiq Khan is (quite a lot) younger than me but we do share some experiences. We're both the children...
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Belated Shakespeare Musings
by Marie-Louise JensenI'm a month late with my Shakespeare post. Forgive me! It wasn't my turn to post in April, but initially I thought it was, so I wrote this.I was extremely fortunate, growing up. I...
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The Girl in the Glass Tower, by Elizabth Fremantle
I wasn't absolutely sure where I was at the beginning of Elizabeth Fremantle's latest book, The Girl in the Glass Tower. It sounds as if the narrator is looking back on her life - but who is she? Where...
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ELECTRIC WRITING by Penny Dolan
Right now, I am trying to work out how to write a particular scene in a piece of “Victorian” junior fiction. The scene involves electricity, but how can I make that dramatic enough for modern children?...
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