Elizabeth I Dancing with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester Philip Stubbs, the Puritan pamphleteer, in his Anatomie of Abuses (1582-3) had little good to say about dancing unless men and women were dancing separately to the glory of God, following the example of King David. He described it as 'an introduction to whordom, a preparatiue … Continue reading A Horrible Pestiferous Vice or Wholesome Exercise? – Dancing in Elizabethan England
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
Between August and November 1888, five women were killed in Whitechapel, all believed to be the victim of a single killer. The identity and the behaviour of the killer has fascinated multitudes since to the point where the killer has achieved almost mythic status, the women he killed dismissed as prostitutes, mere footnotes to the … Continue reading The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
My Reading – July 2019
Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson Call me Isobel. (It's my name.) God's Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England by Jessie ChildsFour months after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, Anne Vaux awoke in a prison cell. The Daughters of Ironbridge by Mollie WaltonFire and smoke, suffocating and infernal, reached up into the sky, staining … Continue reading My Reading – July 2019
‘Seldom doth the husband thrive without leave of his wife’ – The Sixteenth Century Manor Wife
A slightly more succinct version of this post was published on Myths, Legends, Books & Coffee Pots on 8 July 2019. Sixteenth century conduct manuals advised a man seeking a wife to consider everything from the woman’s age, appearance, health, obedience and piety, to her love of children, singing voice and ability to be silent. … Continue reading ‘Seldom doth the husband thrive without leave of his wife’ – The Sixteenth Century Manor Wife
Openings
Whether it is the opening line, the first paragraph or the first few pages, the beginning of a story must draw a reader in, entice her or him to read on, to sink deep into the world the writer has created. Each of the following books opens in different way be it philosophical musing, lyrical … Continue reading Openings
My Reading – June 2019
Murder at Westminster Abbey by Amanda Carmack'Out of my way, you foul hedge-pig! Ain't you ever been told to give way to ladies before?' The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson They came for him at midnight. There was no warning, no time to reach for the dagger beneath his pillow. The Five: The … Continue reading My Reading – June 2019
Unknown Unknowns and Elizabethan Earrings
A few of my favourite things. When you are writing historical fiction it is always the unknown unknowns that will bite you - those things that it has not occurred to you that you need to check. A couple of weeks ago I had a moment or several of historical fiction writer's sheer panic when … Continue reading Unknown Unknowns and Elizabethan Earrings
Book Review – Murder at Westminster Abbey by Amanda Carmack
Londoners are crowding into the streets, celebrating, watching the river procession as Elizabeth Tudor makes her way by barge to the Tower of London in preparation for her coronation. Meanwhile, in the backstreets of Southwark, a kindhearted prostitute with pale skin and red hair is brutally murdered. Nineteen-year-old Kate Haywood is the daughter of a … Continue reading Book Review – Murder at Westminster Abbey by Amanda Carmack
Courtship Tokens
Embroidered gloves, leather, 16th century Gift giving has always been an element of courtship, in the Tudor period as much as at any other time, with gifts often marking the progress of a relationship from early courtship, through pre-betrothal to the formal rituals of betrothal and on to marriage. These gifts were given as tokens … Continue reading Courtship Tokens
My Reading – May 2019
Song of the Sea Maid by Rebecca Mascull I think I had a brother once. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles At half past six on the twenty-first of June 1922, when Count Alexander Illyich Rostov was escorted through the gates of the Kremlin onto Red Square, it was glorious and cool. Painting in … Continue reading My Reading – May 2019
