Malmaison: a home fit for an Empress
In Burke and the Pimpernel Affair, Burke visits the Empress Josephine at her home at Malmaison. Until I started researching the story, I had no idea that Malmaison still existed and is a short bus ride from the centre of Paris. Back then, I couldn’t go to see it...
In Paris with James Burke
I really enjoyed writing Burke and the Pimpernel Affair. It’s a straightforward spy story with more than a nod to Baroness Orczy’s hero, freeing French prisoners from Paris gaols. Much of the story revolves round the Conciergerie which was the main prison during the...
A Very Short Blog Post
It's late in the day to be posting my Friday offering, but I've got an excuse. This was earlier today. It's been an exciting few days, following in Burke's footsteps from Burke and the Pimpernel Affair. There'll be a long post about it next week, but right now I'm...
The White Rajah
Last week Tales of Empire was available free on Amazon. I hope you got a copy. If you didn't, it will set you back a whole 99p this week. I'm never sure about whether free promotions really boost sales of books, but in this case book sales aren't the important thing....
Hill forts (updated)
Last year I posted a piece about hill forts which was inspired by Ailish Sinclair's rather wonderful book, Sisters at the Edge of the World. The story featured a vitrified hill fort. That’s a hill fort where stonework has turned to glass, probably because of intense...
James Brooke, John Williamson, and a free offer
Recently, I've written about the Williamson Papers and how much I would like to see them get a wider readership. The first book in the trilogy, The White Rajah, costs just £3.99 on Kindle (or you can read it free if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited). The White Rajah...
Fighting my way through 1812
I'm never quite sure which posts I write are going to attract a lot of interest and which are going to be passed over. Lately, I've been writing a lot about India and while my mini essay on the Red Fort got a fair amount of attention, others were less popular. I do...
Writing about Britain’s Age of Empire
I've been posting a lot about India over the past few weeks. I think people are getting a bit bored of it by now. (Let me know if I'm wrong. I have several hundred more photos to share.) Part of the reason for writing is just that, having finally made it to the...
A very short review of ‘Tipping the Velvet’
I've not been doing much writing over the last few months which has at least meant that I've been able to catch up on some of my reading. I've had Tipping the Velvet on my list of books I want to read for ages and now I’ve finally got round to it. There's an Afterward...
Loot! Look what our ancestors brought back from India.
When we were in India last month, we kept seeing signs in the various historical sites we visited suggesting that a lot of good stuff had been taken by the British in the 19th century and was now tucked away in various London museums. Back home, we decided to go to...