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The Novel that got Away by Sarah Gristwood
It’s the writer’s equivalent of the dress you can’t quite fit into - but, if you lose a few pounds, then maybe . . . Every author has that back-of-the-wardrobe box of unwritten stories; the ones you...
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History Exercise in a Hammock by Janie Hampton
This month I offer readers tips on how to get fit, ready for all that calorie-burning reading of history books that you plan to do this autumn. At the end of August you are tired from your holidays....
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Women's History by Julie Summers
Sometimes when I am asked what I write I say: ‘I write about people who get themselves into difficult situations and, by and large, get themselves out of them again.’ That usually gets a positive...
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This Mortal Coil by Fay Bound Alberti
Our August guest is Fay Bound Alberti, who with join us next year as a History Girl, posting on the 15th of the month, alternating with Marie-Louise Jensen after Y.S. Lee leaves us in November.About...
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Cabinet of Curiosities by Catherine Hokin
My chosen item for the cabinet of curiosities is perhaps not such an usual choice for a writer as it is a book, in this case a 1933 edition of the Arthur Rackham Fairy Book. It probably ranks as my...
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August Competitition
To win a copy of Fay Bound Alberti's book This Mortal Coil, just answer the following question in the comments and then send a copy of your answer to maryhoffman@maryhoffman.co.uk"Do you have a soul?...
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The Palace of the Grand Master in Rhodes by Mary Hoffman
I'm a sucker for palaces. And castles. Forts, fortresses, towers, anything with crenellations, machicolations, battlements, arrow-slits, moats and portcullises. It's one of the great advantages of...
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Research: Goldmine or Dead End by Debra Daley
On a recent rummage through one of my research notebooks post-publication – looking for material for blog posts that a publicist needed me to write – my curiosity was aroused by the pieces of...
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Ack-Ack Women of the Second World War - Katherine Langrish
Sorting through my mother’s bookcases, I came across this interesting little booklet published for the War Office and the Air Ministry, by the Ministry of Information in 1943. It’s all about the...
View ArticleStreets of Belfast 1901: An Animated Photo - Joan Lennon
My sister flagged up this video to me, because our grandfather came to Canada from Donaghadee (a small place not far from Belfast) about 10 years after this scene was filmed. I looked out for him in...
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In Conversation with Alma Alexander, by Gillian Polack
Today I have a guest. Alma Alexander is a US fantasy writer. She has a deep and abiding love of history. I thought it might be interesting to have a conversation with her instead of the regular kind of...
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London's Burning by Lydia Syson
Of course I should have brought binoculars. Vast though it was - this panoramic wooden sculpture of London’s mid-seventeenth-century skyline, rising from a flat barge in the middle of the Thames - it...
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St JAMES' CHURCH, CHIPPING CAMPDEN by Adèle Geras
The Cotswolds are a region which more than any other exemplifies what foreigners, especially Americans, think of as England. Who can blame them, really? It's an extraordinarily beautiful part of the...
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'Only One Came Back' - by Karen Maitland
Nao Victoria circumnavigating the worldWhen I was child I loved to read my father's collection of books about the adventures of Thor Heyerdahl and others who recreated old ships and retraced ancient...
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Caroline Lawrence's Top Roman Sites in London
A few days ago, a fan of my Roman Mysteries books emailed to ask which places I would recommend for a visit to the nation’s capital. It’s a good question. London has been almost continuously occupied...
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The Health Jolting Chair – Michelle Lovric
Among my long wanderings in the quacklands of feminine health, finding this apparatus was a highlight.Until the early 20th century, of course, there was no legislation in place to limit the grandiosity...
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Top Withens: The 'Real' Wuthering Heights by Katherine Clements
This is the plaque that greets you when you reach Top Withens. Thousands of tourists make the steep climb from Howarth to see the ruins that supposedly inspired Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. I feel...
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Donald Rumsfeld and the Island of Women
Writers love a maxim. Twitter is full of them – little pods of wisdom that are supposed to help guide and inspire. Some are trite, some are tosh and a few are useful. “Get black on white,” said Guy de...
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Linda Porter discusses ROYAL RENEGADES with Elizabeth Fremantle
Acclaimed historical biographer, Linda Porter, has turned to the children of Charles I and the English Civil Wars for her latest book. An ambitious project with daunting scope Royal Renegades shines a...
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Mr Dumas Catherine Johnson
General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas by Olivier Pichat c1790sI know I've written about this chap before. Alex Dumas, born in San Domingue, now Haiti in 1762. He rose to be the highest ranking soldier in a...
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