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Did Mary Shelley Keep Percy's Heart? Anna Mazzola Investigates
At the end of August, Percy Bysshe Shelley spoke to me from the grave. Via Twitter. On Mary Shelley’s birthday, I’d tweeted that she’d out-gothed us all by keeping Shelley's heart after he died. Up...
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The Magic of Flag Fen - Katherine Langrish
Around 1300 BC, a Bronze Age community living close to a rich wetland area near what is now Peterborough decided to build a massive wooden causeway leading from a point on dry land (now known as...
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Heroic Librarians - Joan Lennon
As I snuffle and moan my way through another cold, lying in my bed of woe, I am reminded of the eloquence of Charles Lamb on a similar occasion. But I am comforted by books, and so, as the day follows...
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Putting Words In Their Mouths by Sheena Wilkinson
There’s historical fiction and historical fiction.I’ve never written about real people. Much as I admire, for example, Wolf Hall, I can’t imagine having the confidence, or the desire, to breathe...
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CROOME COURT by Adèle Geras
As readers of this blog know, I'm a big fan of the National Trust and often post here about places I have visited. Usually, I know about these places by reputation, but when I was staying with friends...
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The Ghost Train by Karen Maitland
Edwards Super Chariot Racer 1934. Cost £1,750Remained in the family until 1991.Photographer: LongLiveRockOver the summer I visited the Dingles Fairground Heritage Centre in Devon, England, a charitable...
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Roman London’s ‘Grey Gold’
Caroline Lawrence & Simon Elliottan interview with Dr Simon Elliott by Caroline LawrenceLast month I went along to the Guildhall Library to hear historian and archaeologist Simon Elliott speak...
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Byzantium’s Attila or her Spiritual Heiress? – Michelle Lovric
I have previously interviewed Gregory Dowling about Ascension, his historical mystery set in Venice. When I heard he had a new book out, I asked if we might speak about it. To sweeten the bait, I...
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Australia's 'Ambulance Girls' of the London Blitz
I decided that my fourth novel would be set in London, and would deal with the experiences of an Australian girl who drove an ambulance throughout the Blitz.One thing I always do when preparing for a...
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Julia's villa
Last month, I wrote about my family's trip this summer to Ventotene, a small island of the coast of Lazio, and our adventures swimming in the ancient Roman fish pond there.This month, more on why we...
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BLACK TUDORS: The Untold Story by Miranda Kaufmann – Reviewed by Elizabeth...
Most people have an idea about what they believe life to have been like in Tudor England: brutal, misogynistic, profoundly bound by religion and overwhelmingly white. In terms of racial diversity we...
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East Side Story by Lesley Downer
Until 1954 most immigrants arriving in the United States went through the immigration inspection station on Ellis Island in Upper New York Bay. Having travelled across Europe, often on foot, carrying...
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Loneliness, Madrid and Dali's Great Masturbator by Fay Bound Alberti
Madrid This September, I gave a keynote at the annual conference of the European Philosophical Society for the Study of Emotions(EPSS), held in Madrid. It was my first time to Madrid, and also my first...
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Charleston Farmhouse
Recently, on a journey from Somerset to Rye, in Sussex (a very LONG journey, beset by a great deal of traffic, since you ask), we stopped off at Charleston Farmhouse. Charleston, tucked under the...
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Markenfield Hall and the Scarlet Banner by Penny Dolan
Markenfield Hall, south of Ripon, reputably the oldest, complete moated house in the country, opens up to the public under the Historic Houses scheme for a few days a year. I visited the place for one...
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Cova des Cuieram - A Pilgrimage of a Kind - Celia Rees
I blogged here about my first visit to the Balearic island of Ibiza. My fascination for the island hasn't left me. I knew that one visit would never be enough. This September, I went on another Yoga...
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Roman women in Late Antiquity by Alison Morton
Helena, mother of Constantine the Great (author photo, Naples Museum)I set out to write about women in the late Roman period – ambitious for a blog post, but I thought I could pull some threads out of...
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Corhampton Church – a Saxon gem in Provincia Meanwarorum
Corhampton (Quedementune (11th c); Cornhampton (13th); Corhamtone, Cornhamtone and Cornehampton (14th); Corehampton (16th) lies on the west bank of the River Meon, seven miles upstream from Wickham,...
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Sad / Happy by Imogen Robertson
I lost a ring a fortnight ago in Brighton. I was / am deeply gutted as it was a present from my aunt, and she had had it from her aunt and the chain of ownership made it particularly special to me. It...
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The Protest Song from Richard II to Donald Trump by Catherine Hokin
BBC4In line with our household's apparent 'let's only watch unremittingly depressing things on tv' policy, I've been immersed for the last couple of weeks in BBC4's excellent documentary series on the...
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