The Ides of April: Lindsay Davis
I used to be a huge fan of Lindsay Davis’s Falco stories – a model of how to write historical crime fiction. Falco eventually grew a little too middle aged to keep on with his criminal investigations and the torch was passed to his daughter, Albia. The Ides of April...
Why is there an iron bridge at Ironbridge?
Last week we looked at the bridge at Ironbridge, but why was the bridge built there? Obviously people wanted to be able to cross the river, but we saw last week that the bridge was much more than just a utilitarian structure: it was showing off a new technique for...
Journal of the Covid Years: “Learning how to do this”
Friday 27 March 2020 Glorious weather, with bluer skies than I have ever known before. And good news: Marble Hill Park is open again – closure lasted one day only. We were getting ready to complain when we woke up on Wednesday morning, to find an open gate – dog...
A trip to Ironbridge
It's time I wrote a post based around late 18th century history. After all, my books start in the late 18th century and that used to be the focus of my blog before there was a long pause in being able to get about and explore Britain's past. But now we are back to...
Journal of the Covid Years: Recovery
I'm moving this to Thursdays as I do want to cover other things on my Friday posts and I can see that this isn't everyone's interest. I think it's worth carrying on with though. It reminds us of things like the wild burst of volunteering and community spirit when it...
Shady Hollow: Juneau Black
Imagine Beatrix Potter meets Agatha Christie and you have Shady Hollow. A bunch of animals live together in a small town where differences in size and diet don’t seem to be a problem as they mix together in coffee bars and restaurants. Fortunately, they all seem to...
Gertrude Tuckwell: a guest post by Tammy G
My beloved wanted to write something about the women of the early 20th century who, having got the vote, were beginning to exercise real influence on government policy on social issues. Her starting point was Gertrude Tuckwell, who she had come across when researching...
Journal of the Covid Years: Sick Already.
This is the fourth week of this journal. (Last week's is HERE.) Two years ago there was still officially nothing to worry about, but the country was closing down anyway. If you vaguely remember the government offering any kind of leadership, read this and think again....
Anthem: Noah Hawley
Anthem is, to put it mildly, rather a strange book. It is, perhaps, the book that 2022 deserves: quirky; darkly cynical; very funny in places but desperately sad in others; simultaneously deeply pessimistic but finally (perhaps unrealistically) optimistic. The book is...
Journal of the Covid Years: stocking up and closing down
I did wonder whether to post these diary entries this week. During lockdown, when people moaned about the restrictions on their lives, there were a lot of comments about how they should shut up because it wasn't as if they were being asked to make the sacrifices that...