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An interview with Stephanie Burgis, by Y S Lee
Stephanie Burgis’s Masks and Shadows (Pyr Books) is a bold historical fantasy set in Hungary, 1779, at the height of the Habsburg monarchy. Featuring opera, alchemy, political intrigue and “the most...
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'The House by the Lake', by Thomas Harding: reviewed by Sue Purkiss
'The House on the Lake' is an engaging mix of memoir, biography and history; it's probably the most enjoyable non-fiction book I've read all year. A version of this review appeared a few months ago on...
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SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS FOR EVER! by Penny Dolan
SWALLOWS AND AMAZONShas been showing this past month at local cinemas. This family film stood out, amid the wash of screen stories about fantastical beings, big and friendly creatures and lost fish, as...
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Birmingham's Big Read Book Benches - Celia Rees
Lord of the Rings Book BenchThis summer, benches appeared all over Birmingham and beyond, 175 of them. They were designed by children and young people from more than 140 schools, nurseries, colleges...
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Judicial Murder in Melbourne by Katherine Webb
I recently travelled to Australia for the first time to visit my sister, who emigrated out to Melbourne earlier this year. It might have been winter over there, but it was still a wonderful trip - I'm...
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Medieval Weobley - by Ann Swinfen
The village of Weobley is one of the most beautiful in England.However, lying as it does a mere four miles from the Welsh border, it has known troubles over the centuries, some arising from Marcher...
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What I've been reading by Imogen Robertson
A very quick post from me today! I thought I'd share some of my favourite reading of the last few weeks and see what you are all enjoying at the moment.Sons of The Blood - New World Rising by Robyn...
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The Green Children of Woolpit: Superstitions Past and Present by Catherine Hokin
There's been a bit of a trend on social media recently for parents posting back-to-school pictures of their offspring. I'm not sure a snap of my 21 year old lugging beer back to Manchester would be...
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How much did ordinary Germans really know about the Holocaust? by Leslie Wilson
'I know no one ever believes us nowadays – everyone thinks we knew everything. We knew nothing, it was all kept well secret.' Thus Brunhilde Pomsel, one of Goebbels's typists, recently quoted in The...
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A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR: A commodity of Outremer By Elizabeth Chadwick
modern sugar loaf, but little differentto a medieval one.I am currently deep into the research and writing of my next project TEMPLAR SILKS, the story of William Marshal's missing years during his...
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Fanny Burney by Miranda Miller
I’m so glad to have finally read some of the work of this extraordinary women. The daughter of the musicologist Dr Charles Burney, whose amanuensis she was, she daringly wrote an epistolary novel,...
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A vineyard in southern France, by Carol Drinkwater
It is that time of year again. Late September. The season of ‘mellow fruitfulness’. There are no mists here at this time of year in the south of France but there is a great deal of mature sunlight...
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Jellicoe and the U Boats by Janie Hampton
There has been much in the news this year about the 1916 naval Battle of Jutland and the role of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. Admiral Sir John Jellicoe(1859-1953)But has anybody mentioned another...
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Making History ... by One Foot by Julie Summers
I write a great deal about life in the middle of the last century and about people who made history in a variety of different ways. Today I want to tell the story of a group of young men who made...
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New Georgette Heyer stories!
We could almost say that our September guest is posthumous! The late Georgette Heyer (1902-1974) is very popular with many History Girls and our Followers but we are aware that she is sometimes...
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September Competition
To win a copy of Snowdrift, short stories by Georgette Heyer, just answer the following question in the Comments below:What is your favourite Georgette Heyer novel and why?Then send your answer to...
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The Local Mitfords by Mary Hoffman
This dropped into my inbox last week and got me fired up about the Mitford Sisters all over again. It's the US release, by St. Martin's Press, of a book published in the UK by Head of Zeus last year,...
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Writing culture and religion into historical fiction, by Gillian Polack
The Jewish New Year is today, so I’m going to celebrate it with a post that contains things Jewish. And I’m going to put other things in it because I can. I was on four panels at a science fiction...
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Of hair and hairdressers in historic Japan by Debra Daley
The ways in which women of low social class earned a living in the 18th century, outside of prostitution and domestic service, always arouses my curiosity. During a recent research session, I came upon...
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"On Preserving Insects In Rectified Wine" etc - Katherine Langrish
I’ve been reading some more recipes and household tips from the ‘Family Receipt Book’ from 1837 which formed the subject of my August post, and I can’t resist sharing some more of them here. To dip in...
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