In last week’s blog post I mentioned that my most popular posts were often book reviews. I actually tried to write fewer book reviews last year because I didn’t expect them to be particularly well read. Here are the books I reviewed with links to the original blog posts for people who might be interested.
A short review of the latest Sharpe novel with comparisons with my own Burke and the Pimpernel Affair and Burke at Waterloo, which have some overlaps in plot. If you were imprisoned in a French fortress, who would you rather have saving you: Sharpe or Burke?
The fourth of Horst’s Norwegian thrillers that I’ve reviewed. Not as good as the first three about his policeman hero, Wisting, but good enough if you’ve enjoyed the other three.
I remember lots of excitement about this book when it came out. Does anyone remember it now? Not the Great American Novel that some reviewers seemed to have thought it was. It may well be the Great American Novel That Defines 2022 though.
What do you do when your famous detective character (Falco) has been going so long that he’s no longer a credible action hero? Why, you have his daughter take over the family business. The Ides of April is the first in Lindsay Davis’s new series featuring Flavia Albia. It came out in 2013 but I only just got around to it. Sorry about that.
If you’ve read any of my blogs featuring Marble Hill House, you may understand why I found this book so fascinating. If you don’t know anything about Marble Hill House, reading this book might make you want to learn more.
I’m a fan of Val Poore’s blog, Rivergirl, so her story about how she came to be living on a classic Dutch barge fascinated me. Give it a go and you might end up a fan of the blog too.
The fifth book in Vanner’s ‘Dawlish Chronicles’ series features an early submarine, the ‘Fenian Ram’, a submarine designed by the pioneer of submarine warfare, John Holland. The adventures are largely fictitious but the technology is very real.
I’ve not included Tales of Empire in my eleven book reviews because it’s hardly an unbiased review. I published this book which is a very short collection of stories, one by me and three by other authors. Have a look about at what I say about the other three and then buy it. It’s only 99p.
OOPS!
Somehow (probably because it was so recent that I didn’t really think of it as being last year) I completely forgot to include Sisters at the Edge of the World, Ailish Sinclair’s stunning novel of Bronze Age Scotland. Almost impossible to categorise, I can only say that it is brilliant. Read it.
I published over eighty blog posts last year, which is probably rather too many. It does look as if people are reading them though. I’m not sure I entirely trust WordPress’s statistics but they claim that that has been a big growth in hits on my website recently, which suggests that someone, somewhere enjoys reading the stuff I write. Actually, I say “somewhere” as if I have no idea where my readers are but WordPress says that most of them are in the United States. This is odd, as I don’t sell many books in the United States. Are you real readers or are you bots? If you are reading this from the USA, why not say hello in the comments? And maybe even buy one of my books.
2022 saw the usual collection of personal ramblings, book reviews, historical nuggets and even (say it soft) plugs for my books. But what did people actually read?
Book reviews were popular. I often feel a bit embarrassed writing book reviews because, honestly, why should anybody care what I think of a book? I remember once reviewing a book that I thought was a bit of dire self-published nonsense only to discover later that it was actually a best seller on the New York Times list. All book reviews are subjective, but apparently some people like to read mine so I will carry on doing them.
Several other posts about my own books were also well read, which was nice. Sometimes I feel that people want to read the blog posts about other peoples’ books or historical events, but are much less enthusiastic about reading things promoting my own work. This year seems to have been a welcome exception. Thank you for everybody who did read these posts. Perhaps they contributed to a definite uplift in sales this year.
I’m always happy to feature guest posts, especially from historical authors. I’ve had some lovely guest posts in the past year. Carol McGrath’s recent one on ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ was particularly popular.
Back in November I was very lucky to be invited as a guest to the officers mess at Saint James’s palace. I couldn’t resist writing about it on my blog and it seems that a lot of people enjoyed reading it. I’m happy to have shared my day with you.
Amongst the straightforward history posts, the most popular seems to have been my essay on the British invasion of Buenos Aires in 1806, which features in ‘Burke in the Land of Silver’. There was also a lot of interest in a series of blog posts which combined chatting about a holiday to Ironbridge with an outline of the town’s importance in the development of the Industrial Revolution.
It’s not just about the number of visitors. One reason why so many blogs appeared last year was that for a while I ran a post every week based on my wife’s diaries of two years before when we were in lockdown. These did not get as many visitors as the average post, but it did generate some discussion on Twitter and people who read them were sometimes very enthusiastic about them. Two years ago does not feel like history, but it’s amazing how quickly something that affected everybody so immediately is drifting hazily into the past. The government’s inquiry into what went wrong (and things obviously did go wrong) seems to have been set up with a view to reporting once we have all forgotten what actually happened. I think it’s important that we don’t, so I was happy to publish these diaries. They are honestly worth a look. Search for ‘Journal of the Covid Years’.
So there we are: the usual eclectic mix of subject matter. There was even the inevitably compulsory post on tango, written after a visit to Buenos Aires. I must be doing something write because you still read my blog — more and more as the year went by. Thank you very much for exploring this weird mix of subjects with me. If you’re enjoying them, I’m always happy to hear from you. And if there’s something you would particularly like me to write about, please let me know.
I’m very gently easing myself back into writing. A fellow writer has just been boasting of sitting down to start a new book and bashing out 2,000 words “just like that”. That is so not happening here. I’m always happy to admit that I am a lazy writer, but even when I roll up my sleeves and get to work, I write slowly. I used to write commercial non-fiction (often anonymously) and the ability to turn out large numbers of words to a timetable was crucial. Nowadays, I write fiction and I like to take my time over it.
I keep reading stuff on social media about setting my writing goals. Really? If I were going to set goals and work hard to achieve them, I might as well go back to having a proper job. My writing is now beginning to sell enough to generate a pleasant side income, but it’s never going to produced the sort of money that I got when I was working. In fact, it doesn’t produce the sort of money that I get from teaching the occasional tango lesson. (Feel free to ask me to teach you!) So my writing goal is to finish the third draft of Burke and the Lines of Torres Vedras and produce something that can see the light of day in the first half of the year. After that, I’d quite like to write another Galbraith & Pole book, but first I’ll have to have an idea for a plot and, so far, I just don’t.
I am going to try to do more about selling the books I’ve written already, particularly the John Williamson Papers. People who read them generally like them, but the never took off the way the Burke series did. It would be nice to see more people reading and enjoying them. I keep being told that the answer is a newsletter. I dohave a newsletter (you can sign up at the bottom of the page) and I’m going to try to give people more good stuff if they sign up. Keep your eyes peeled!
What else? I’ve no idea really. Outside of writing I’ll be doing a lot of dancing and I’ve already booked to watch other people dancing right through to August. Once it gets warmer I’ll be putting on my skates again. (I haven’t been skating since a madcap run round Buenos Aires in October.). Mostly, like a lot of people right now, I’ll be concentrating on not needing to go to hospital and not making any plans that involve railways.
So here we are at the end of 2022.It’s been a funny old year, hasn’t it? A sort of good news: bad news kind of a year. Russia invaded Ukraine, but the war hasn’t gone nuclear. A small, self-selected group of not-terribly-bright people elected the most shockingly incompetent Prime Minister Britain has ever had, but she was only there for 44 days. Energy prices have rocketed to the point where many people can no longer afford to heat their homes, but we have yet to face power cuts.
Against this exciting background, daily life has continued remarkably much as usual here, though admittedly rather less warmly than normal lately. After over two years when even visiting Wales seemed like an adventure (and was often impossible) we have started to go abroad again with trips to Sweden (pictured above) and, towards the end of the year, Buenos Aires. It was lovely to get back to Argentina, but generally we’ve limited our travelling to England. It turns out there are still some fascinating places we have never visited before: amazing stately homes like Basildon Park and whole towns like Shrewsbury full of wonderful historic buildings.
Basildon Park
I’ve blogged here about all this, of course. Although I am always threatening to cut down on blogging, I’m still turning out something every week, though sometimes the space has been given over to guests like Carol McGrath and Anna Legat. There have been some brilliant guest posts and all of them are still available on the blog.
Despite all the excitement of Mr Musk’s antics, I’m still on Twitter (@TomCW99). I struggle to amuse on TikTok, but do feel free to have a look at tomwilliams4777.
In amongst all this excitement I managed to publish three books in 2022. The first was Burke and the Pimpernel Affair. All the Burke books are different and this one was a straightforward spy caper with more than a nod to Baroness Orczy’s Scarlet Pimpernel. It’s a fun read and I hope you enjoy it. Also a fun read was Eat The Poor, another story about Galbraith and Pole, this time with a satirical edge to add to the fun.
The third book to be published was Tales of Empire. It’s a collection of just four short stories. I wrote one of them, but the significant thing is that it appeared under the Big Red imprint so Big Red is now definitely a real (if small) publisher and not just a cover for self-publishing. That made me happy. (And Tales of Empire is just 99p, so why not treat yourself and make me fractionally happier?)
So maybe not that bad a year after all. And 2023 might even be better.
I’m delighted to welcome Carol McGrath back to my blog with her post on Medieval Christmases.
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Before the Reformation of the 1530s Christmas Eve, the last day of Advent, would have been a day of fasting until after noon on Christmas Eve when fish dishes were served. The real feasting began on Christmas Day. The Yule log was traditionally dragged to the hearth where it burned throughout the twelve days of Christmas. People believed if it went out bad luck could occur during the following year.
They believed that between Christmas and Twelfth night the power of the new-born Christ would outrank that of ghosts and spirits and ensure good luck rather than bad. Medieval people were in general superstitious.
The first day of Christmas was 25th December when everybody attended Church before tucking into a traditional dinner. In London the Worshipful Company of Butchers marched with drummers in a colourful procession to present a boar’s head to the Lord Mayor. This ceremony dates back to 1343. Hospitality was the rule of the season when people visited family and friends and ate and drank as much as they could afford. Christmas Day was a time for feasting, dancing and watching plays and this continued throughout the season until Twelfth Night, the twelfth day of Christmas.
The second day of Christmas, 26th December, was St Stephen’s Day. St Stephen was the patron saint of horses. It was a day for charity when leftovers were given to the poor as almsgiving. Carols were sung. Good King Wenceslas originated in the medieval period but the words we know today are Victorian.
The 27th was another day of feasting with two or three courses served with a lavish selection of dishes. It was the feast of St John the Evangelist and in commemoration of St John who miraculously recovered from drinking poisoned wine, wine was consumed in huge quantities on this day. Wine was a potent delight for poor people who were used to drinking ale throughout the year. Wine was expensive and regarded as a gentleman’s drink. Often children would carry a wassail bowl from house to house with seasonal greetings hoping it would be generously replenished.
The 28th December reflected the Feast of Holy Innocents, the massacre of the innocents by King Herod. It was appropriately called Childermass. In great houses the twelve days of feasting were not presided over by the master of the household but rather by the Lord of Misrule or Master of Merry Disports. He took control of Christmas revelry and his train might include heralds, musicians and fools in fancy dress. They were at their most popular in fourteenth century England and during the early Tudor era. Boy Bishops were appointed in abbeys on 6th December and held office until Holy Innocents Day.
The fifth day of Christmas, 29th December was the anniversary of the martyrdom of Archbishop, Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. It was marked by a pilgrimage along the Pilgrim’s Way to Canterbury Cathedral when pilgrims would pray for healing and miracles at St Thomas’s Shrine. They might purchase a pilgrim badge. For those not on pilgrimage the season continued to be a season of honest pastimes such as mummers’ plays, pageants, masques and music. Hunting was popular during the season and in 1564 when the Thames froze over people played football and skated on the ice.
The 30th of December was traditionally a day of making music. Most carols are anonymous, their words and music passed down by oral tradition. The first carols in English were translated or composed by Francisian friars in the thirteenth century as aids to learning about the scriptures. The earliest carols by English composers date from the fifteenth century.
The 31st December, the seventh day of Christmas, New Year’s Eve, was a full day of revelry, a day of games and sporting activities. Board games such as chess, backgammon and dice and cards were popular. Huge sums might be lost or won. The Lord of Misrule might organise Hide and Seek and Hood Man Blind.
New Year’s Day marked the liturgical New Year. However the date did not change on documents until 25th March, Lady Day, when the legal New Year began. Lovers exchanged nutmegs glazed with egg whites to spice their drinks. New Year’s Day was called The Feast of Fools. It was a time to reflect on the past year and resolve to do better in the New Year. A knight might make the vow of the peacock by placing his hand on a roasted bird and renew his vow of chivalry.
Morris Men or Mumming
Picture 5 The 2nd January was a traditional day for mumming. Nativity plays were performed in churchyards, streets or market places, acted by monks or by groups of masked mummers. These were generally spoken in Latin. Cycles of mystery plays became famous. The Coventry Cycle dates from 1392 but there were others such as The Wakefield, York and Chester collections. The word mummers means ‘masked actors’.
Let us jump to the 5th January, Epiphany Eve and twelfth night of Christmas. This was a time of celebration involving feasts, games and more plays. This night marks the culmination of the Yuletide Season. At court there would be a sumptuous banquet and an enormous cake was baked containing dried fruit, flour, honey and spices. Inside the cake was a coin or bean to be offered to guests as they arrived. The lucky recipient would be king or queen of the bean and hoisted shoulder high to chalk crosses on the ceiling beams. The chalk marks were intended to ward off cursed devils, sprites, and other crawling things from conjuring charms.
Finally, Christmas ends. Some thought it bad luck to leave Christmas decorations up after midnight on Twelfth Night. After that the power of the Christ child would no longer hold sway. If greenery was not put outside again the tree spirits might bring disaster to the household during the coming year. When the Yule log was finally allowed to burn out, people would save a piece of it to light the next year’s log. They might keep some of the ashes in the house to protect against fire, lightning and toothache!!!!!
Carol McGrath Author
Following her first degree in Russian Studies, English and History, Carol McGrath completed an MA in Creative Writing at The Seamus Heaney Centre, Belfast, followed by an English MPhil from University of London. She is the author of The Daughters of Hastings Trilogy. Her seventh historical novel, The Stone Rose, published by the Headline Group, set during the High Middle Ages features Isabella of France. Carol also writes Historical Non-Fiction for Pen & Sword. Tudor Sex and Sexuality was published on 30th January 2022. She is currently writing a novel about The Anarchy titled The Stolen Crown to be published May 2023 and is already available on Amazon pre-order.
