Wayward Women!

-

Thank you very much to all those who volunteered to help me test drive my new website!

Today I am blogging at the UK Historical Authors Blog about women travellers in the late 18th and early 19th century. Yes the photo is taken rather later than that (!) but I thought it summed up the intrepid spirit!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fans!

-
Image
This weekend I visited a fabulous little antiquarian bookshop, Evergreen Livres, in the historic market town of Stow on the Wold. It's the sort of bookshop I can easily go mad in and spend a fortune on out of print historical reference books. It has a great stock of unusual and reasonably priced books, the owners are very friendly and they have a cute dog - all recommendations as far as I'm concerned. One of the books I picked up was about fans. I have been aware of the language of fans for a while, although I knew nothing about what the different signals meant. Now I can see how you could build an entire story around this clever and complicated art. Some of my favourite gestures/ messages are: Placing the fan on the left ear - I wish to get rid of you. Drawing the fan across the forehead - You have changed. Covering the left ear with the open fan - Do not betray our secret I can see a couple of difficulties here, not least that some of these gestures seem quite odd and might ...
Read more

The Books of Your Childhood.

-
Image
This is a fantastic meme from Michelle Styles for anyone who loves to talk about books, especially the books that captured you when you were a child and are still with you now. Name at least one book that you read as a child (ie 11 or under) that still exists in your memory as a perfect story. You can say why if you wish, or simply give a list -- your choice. It can be a story that you are now uncomfortable about having loved or were uncomfortable at some point and have now come back to or alternatively just one that you have always loved. Here is my list: 1. A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley. History fascinated me even as a child, as did the idea of stepping back in time. I’ve been hooked on timeslip romance ever since! 2. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner. I could name just about every Alan Garner book for this list. I was totally hooked on his writing. The combination of adventure, magic and something just a little bit strange and spooky fascinated me. Plus the fact ...
Read more

Is the White Horse really a Dragon?

-
Image
Today is St George's Day, the patron saint of England, and in celebration I am posting up a picture of the actual place where he slew the dragon. Yes, Dragon Hill, near Uffington in Oxfordshire has been identified as the site of the dragon-slaying and as "proof " there is a patch of chalk on the top of the hill where the grass never grows because this was where the dragon's blood was spilt. You can see the patch in the photograph. It's a wonderful story and a fabulously atmospheric place. According to legend, St George was a Roman soldier who killed the dragon to save a princess. In this picture the dragon appears to be smaller than St George's horse, which isn't really a fair fight, and the setting doesn't bear much resemblance to Uffington but we must allow for artistic licence. Just above Dragon Hill is Uffington Castle, an Iron Age hillfort and on the side of the hill is one of the most famous chalk figures in the country, the Uffington White Hors...
Read more