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Liberty Poles and Trees by Miranda Miller
Liberty poles sprouted all over Europe after the French Revolution. Until I found this watercolour by Goethe of the Liberty pole at the border of the Republic of Mainz in 1793, I was unable to...
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France as my Inspiration, by Carol Drinkwater
The famous green boxes used by the Parisian bouquinistes They have been designated a World Heritage Site statusI am deep...
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Your Last Paper Five Pound Note by Janie Hampton
For the past fifteen years, all of us who live in Britain have looked at this woman many thousands of times. But within the next few months she will disappear from public view as paper notes are...
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Simple Charm by Julie Summers
This autumn I went to visit the National Trust's Nuffield Place, the home of William Morris, Lord Nuffield, from 1933 until his death thirty year later at the age of 85. William Morris was one of the...
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The girlie side of history by Sarah Gristwood
Our October guest is Sarah Gristwood, who - as well as being a well-respected historian - is a History Girl Reserve, one of that splendid band of writers who give us "anytime posts" that can be used...
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Cabinet of Curiosities by Mary Hoffman
We have a "Cabinet of curiosities" post on the 30th of each month that has 31 days, i.e. seven months in every year. Usually one of our number writes about an object she possesses, perhaps something...
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October competition
To win one of five copies of Sarah Gristwood's Game of Queens, just anser the following question in the Comments section below:"Which powerful woman from continental Europe deserves to be better known...
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Looking for Mona Lisa by Mary Hoffman
As I wrote in my Cabinet of Curiosities post a few days ago, I have been reading all I can find about the subject of the world's most famous painting, known as Mona Lisa, or La Gioconda. Who was the...
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How to read as a writer, by Gillian Polack
There are so many articles these days – on the web and off- that give a guide to how life was lived or how something was experienced in times other than our own. We can fly through London in the...
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The day the Endeavour sailed close to home by Debra Daley
It’s the morning of the second day of November and I’ve sat down at the kitchen table to finish writing this post. Every so often, as always, my gaze strays to the big view framed in the window. The...
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Tudor Coney-Catchers and Modern Scammers - by Katherine Langrish
A few years ago on holiday in Paris, my daughter and I were walking along the Seine from the Musée D’Orsay (we’d hoped to get in, but the staff were on strike), heading for the pedestrian bridge that...
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Trying to Like the Fifth of November by Joan Lennon
I came to the whole 5th of November thing late, as an adult, and let's face it, I'm just not a fan. It's just too gory and violent and religiously intolerant and, well, pants. But, 5th of the month's...
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Sat Nav -- 1908-style
My iPhone map app updated today and now contains singularly useless – to me – information about transport in Japan. I find no charm in this unasked for, space-hogging data. But I find a great deal of...
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APPLE DAY AT COPPED HALL by Adèle Geras
Once upon a time, O Best Beloved, there was no email. People sent one another postcards. The photograph below shows a caryatid at Copped Hall. One of the first cards sent to me by Linda Newbery, who's...
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'Playing The Fool' by Karen Maitland
Ask most people to imagine a medieval feast and they will usually picture a jester or ‘fool’ prancing around the tables clad in bells and pointed hats, but how accurate is that image? In the 11th and...
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Time Travel in Rome's Piazza Navona
On the day this blog is due I will be in Rome, being a writer-in-residence to kids at St Stephen's High School. So I thought I’d dig up a suitable post from my Roman Mysteries Travel Guide. When in...
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The Great Venice Boil-Off - Michelle Lovric
This post is about Venetian Treacle, the crème de la crème of all quack preparations. Like all such, Venetian Treacle was said to cure everything from ingrown toenail to plague. It probably cured...
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Victorian Tattooed Ladies: Circus freaks or pioneering feminists? by...
The history of tattooing goes back to prehistory but the English word, in this context, is first attested in the writings of Captain Cook. An entry in Cook’s ship’s log of 1769 refers to male and...
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The Consolation of Seneca, by Antonia Senior
Seneca is having a moment. There are two excellent new biographies out about him: Dying every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero, by James Romm and Seneca, a Life, by Emily Wilson. The Senecans, by Peter...
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