Blog
Nursing in the 1940’s and 50’s – Fetch Nurse Connie
I am thrilled to welcome Jean Fullerton to my blog today, to chat about her latest book and the way in which she researched and wrote the story. Known for her wonderful Powerpoint presentations about East End London life, Jean brings all her research and life...
Dare Devils: Seventeenth Century Highwaymen
Though legends of highwaymen are many, there is only one featuring a woman – Lady Katherine Fanshawe. Shadow on the Highway is the first instalment in her story, the real history which over the generations has become embroidered with myth, as have all the other...
Mary Beale – 17th Century torch bearer for women artists
'Unlike other painters of that era, she tried to understand her sitters, rather than glorifying them. She didn't claim to be extraordinary, but she was. She never claimed to be the first woman to make a living by her brush, but she was.” This is how Germaine Greer...
Award-winning writer Charlotte Betts reveals her favourite English chateau
I have just finished Charlotte Betts's latest novel, Chateau on the Lake, which is yet another gripping romance from this award-winning novelist. I first came across Charlotte because she has written several books in one of my favourite periods - the...
Red Rose, White Rose – Joanna Hickson researches Cecily Neville
My article on Red Rose White Rose by Joanna Hickson - Queen of the Castle. is featured in the Historical Novel Society Magazine this month. You can find it here on their website if you are a member of the HNS. If you like historical fiction, why not join? For those...
Stolen by Sheila Dalton
Stolen came about after two trips: one to Devon, England, and one to Morocco. The book is dedicated to my husband, who traveled with me. He died suddenly in 2012, before the book was published, but I wanted to include him somehow, because he loved the story and,...
Learning and Leisure – the disappearance of Night School
In the old days people went to 'Night School' to learn a new skill, like a language, or carpentry, or DIY, or car maintenance, and you had to book well in advance to secure your place. That idea morphed into 'Adult Education', and that into 'Adult and Community...
This Rough Ocean by Ann Swinfen
Flood and This Rough Ocean Two Families in the 1640s I have written two novels set in the seventeenth century and both have their roots in true events. Like most people, I suspect, I’m heartily thankful I did not live in that tempestuous period, yet it is...
Page-turning fiction – can it be memorable?
I've just finished a book I've been working on for about eighteen months, and now I am catching up with my reading. As writers we are encouraged to hook the reader by encouraging them not to pause, but to keep on turning the pages. But - one thing I have noticed is...
Legionary; The Scourge of Thracia by Gordon Doherty
In late 377 AD, the Roman Diocese of Thracia (roughly modern-day Bulgaria) was in turmoil, still reeling from the indecisive Battle of Ad Salices against Fritigern’s Gothic Alliance, where much of the Thracian legions had been crushed or severely weakened....
The historic house locations for Wolf Hall
A copy of my National Trust Magazine arrived yesterday and there is an article which details the locations used in the series Wolf Hall. I really loved the first episode, but my NT magazine did not have room for all the properties that will be featured apart from...
Legionary: Gods and Emperors by Gordon Doherty
Godron Doherty describes how the Battle of Adrianople inspired the latest in his Legionary Series. The clash of the Romans and the Goths near Adrianople in 378 CE surely qualifies as one of history’s most pivotal battles: one that permanently lodged the...
Saga Lover’s Christmas Stocking – two books to hit the spot
I was lucky enough to attend the launch of Freda Lightfoot's new book, The Amber Keeper, and dived straight in to this gorgeously evocative tale of love and treachery in the Russian Revolution. Impeccably researched, the book tells of how, in the 1960's, single...
A Cruel Necessity by L.C.Tyler
Historical Fiction Highlight Just occasionally I highlight something new on the blog which I think looks particularly exciting. I'm a massive fan of books set in the English Civil War and the 17th Century, so when I saw this new historical mystery series set in that...
Hand of Fire by Judith Starkston
I started Hand of Fire in order to answer a question that had bothered me for a long time. For years I’d taught the Iliad, Homer’s epic poem of the Trojan War, and kept wondering with my students how Briseis, the captive woman who sparked the bitter conflict between...