Looking for Mona Lisa by Mary Hoffman

As I wrote in my Cabinet of Curiosities post a few days ago, I have been reading all I can find about the subject of the world's most f...

Read More

October competition

To win one of five copies of Sarah Gristwood's Game of Queens, just anser the following question in the Comments section below: "Wh...

Read More

Cabinet of Curiosities by Mary Hoffman

We have a "Cabinet of curiosities" post on the 30th of each month that has 31 days, i.e. seven months in every year. Usually one o...

Read More

The girlie side of history by Sarah Gristwood

Our October guest is Sarah Gristwood, who - as well as being a well-respected historian -  is a History Girl Reserve, one of that splendid b...

Read More

Simple Charm by Julie Summers

This autumn I went to visit the National Trust's Nuffield Place, the home of William Morris, Lord Nuffield, from 1933 until his death th...

Read More

Your Last Paper Five Pound Note by Janie Hampton

For the past fifteen years, all of us who live in Britain have looked at this woman many thousands of times. But within the next few months ...

Read More

France as my Inspiration, by Carol Drinkwater

                                       The famous green boxes used by the Parisian bouquinistes                                           Th...

Read More

Liberty Poles and Trees by Miranda Miller

    Liberty poles sprouted all over Europe after the French Revolution. Until I found this watercolour by Goethe of the Liberty pole at the ...

Read More

William Marshal and the immediate aftermath of The Death of King John By Elizabeth Chadwick

Newark Castle today On the dark and stormy night of October 18th 1216, King John died at Newark Castle, a couple of months short of his 50th...

Read More

The Fall of the Tay Bridge - An Unnecessary Disaster: by Ann Swinfen

On the afternoon of Sunday the 28 th December 1879 a passenger train belonging to the North British Railway Company set off from Waverley ...

Read More