By the time you read this, I will be sleeping off jet lag and ordering room service in a hotel in Vancouver, BC. Last week I posted about my favourite things about London, but one thing I didn't talk about was how odd the city is. There are so many weird and wonderful stories in …
This book is really beautifully bound if you get the hard cover edition. It's soft blue, with embossed gold flowers on the cover, and a swathed Victorian lady pictured in the centre. Perhaps it's slightly beside the point, but I do love a the pleasure of reading a beautifully bound volume. Kate Summerscale once again …
Continue reading Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary Of A Victorian Lady by Kate Summerscale
The word Bedlam became part of common usage as a slang word for chaos, anarchy and mess, but was originally a well known hospital for those suffering from mental illness. It was established in 1247 and existed at different sites til the 1930's. It's history is the history of the treatment for people who were …
Continue reading Bedlam: London And Its Mad by Catharine Arnold
There's something about Henry VIII and his wives that is endlessly fascinating. I've read a few different books about him, his wives, and also his children, most especially Elizabeth I. One of the best historians of the period, and one of the most easily accessible, is Alison Weir. Her works on the period are incredibly …
Continue reading Six Tudor Queens: Katharine Of Aragon, The True Queen by Alison Weir
Opening on her childhood, this book tells the story of Anne, the niece of the King of England in the 1600's, up til she takes the throne herself in the line of succession. She's a woman aware of her place, who loves her older, bossy sister Mary and who has been raised a protestant, in …
I haven't done a post about London in while, and I love sharing my adventures in the city with you, and places that I love. This time, I went to St Paul's Cathedral, which is a beautiful, peaceful place. Oddly enough, even though I've been in London for 8 years, I hadn't actually gone inside …
Shardlake, that kind-hearted, hunch backed lawyer in Henry VIII's England is at it again, this time involved in a plot to incriminate the Queen Catherine Parr. This series of books is so evocative and immersive, I love sinking into them and being in the dark streets of London or whatever town Shardlake finds himself sent …
During the political and religious unrest of the dissolution of the monasteries, a commissioner from Thomas Cromwell is murdered at a Benedictine monastery that he was sent to investigate. When Commissioner Shardlake is sent to investigate the murder, he finds murder and corruption, and a race against time to find a killer. But nothing is …
I came across this book via a recommendation on Amazon, based on previous purchases of historical fiction, and I loved the cover, but this tale is not like regular historical fiction, really. It is set in Devon in the mid 1300's during a time of plague, and tells the story of three people: a woman …
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