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Articles & Links
A selection of guest blogs, articles, podcasts and recordings…
The Dan Foster Mysteries
“Since very few of the tourists could speak Welsh, they were usually deluding themselves about how much they understood about the places they visited and the people they saw.”
In this guest blog for ChezMaximka.blogspot.com I look at walking holidays in Wales eighteenth-century style as part of The Contraband Killings blog tour, December 2022.
On the London Book Trail with Dan Foster
In this article for Book Trail, the Literary Travel website, you can discover more about the locations in Death Makes No Distinction: A Dan Foster Mystery. See also Researching Dan Foster’s London .
A Problem Beyond Human Solution: Women’s Education in the Eighteenth Century
A guest blog (March 2018) for Geri Walton’s history site which looks at all things eighteenth and nineteenth century.
Experiments on the Poor: Madame Gilflurt’s Covent Garden Salon
In The Butcher’s Block, Dan Foster encounters a gang of body snatchers. Find out why the sick, destitute and poor hated and feared grave robbers on Madame Gilflurt’s Covent Garden Salon on 14 November 2017.
War and the Manly Science: Tuesday Talk Guest Blog
A guest article for Helen Hollick’s blog, Let us Talk of Many Things, looking at why the illegal sport of bare knuckle fighting was tolerated by the authorities in the eighteenth century.
Hen Pearce: A Pugilistic Hercules
This guest blog on Catherine Curzon’s blog, A Covent Garden Gilflurt’s Guide to Life, looks at Bristol pugilist Hen Pearce, the Game Chicken. Hen Pearce: A Pugilistic Hercules here.
We Will Have a Fire: Arson During Eighteenth-Century Enclosures
Part of the “Casting Light Upon the Darkness” Blog Hop organised by author Helen Hollick, 21 December 2013.
The Story of Bet Carter, A Convict to New South Wales
A brief mention of Bet Carter in Scottish radical T F Palmer’s account of his voyage to Botany Bay prompted me to find out more about her. Bet was transported on the same ship as Palmer and his fellow Scottish Martyrs – campaigners for franchise reform – and she was unlucky enough to be caught up in an alleged mutiny plot. I piece together her story in this guest blog for the West of England and South Wales Women’s History Network (a version of which was originally published on my blog).
Novel Conversations with Helen Hollick
Dan Foster made his appearance on Novel Conversations to talk to Helen about how it feels to make an arrest, his pickpocketing childhood, and accusations of corruption levelled against the Bow Street Runners. You can read Novel Conversations with Dan Foster here.
See also Paul Mattox, who helps Dan’s father in the eighteenth-century boxing academy Noah runs. – also featured in a Novel Conversation with Helen Hollick.
Walking and Writing: How Landscape Inspired Bloodie Bones
A guest blog on Jane Davis’s blog on 22 May 2015 about how walking inspires my writing.
To The Fair Land
Travels With My Book: To The Fair Land
“It was a myth, yet people still risked their lives looking for it.”
A guest post on author Debbie Young’s blog about To The Fair Land, which is set in the imagined Fair Land, as well as literary London and maritime Bristol in the eighteenth century. In the blog I discuss the origins of the Fair Land and the history that underpins the fantasy.
The Burneys and To The Fair Land
“To The Fair Land isn’t about the Burney family, and nor does it feature them as characters. So how did their lives inform the writing?”
A guest post for the Historical Fiction With Spirit blog, looking at how the writer Frances Burney and her family were inspirations for To The Fair Land.
Author Interviews
Blame it on Charles Dickens – Author in the Spotlight, Jaffa Reads Too
The Little Bookworm Spotlight (Emma Mitchell’s Blog)
Running for the Finishing Line – Anna Belfrage’s Blog
Discovering Diamonds Sunday Guest Spot
Author Interview with Fiona McVie
Love Me, Love My Character – Alison Morton’s Blog
Female First – My Favourite Crime Fiction
My Inheritance Book – Rhoda Baxter’s Blog
“I’ve never seen the point in historical fiction” – Jane Davis’s Blog
On Books and Writing
“Mind set” in historical fiction – Books, Life and Everything Blog
How to Respond When a Reader Claims There’s an Error in Your Books
Jane Eyre: Rebel Woman – Discovering Diamonds
The Joy of Beta Reading – Alliance of Independent Authors
Show, Don’t Sell- Alliance of Independent Authors
Podcasts and Recordings
I talked with Dan Simpson of the award-winning Writers’ Routine podcast about why I love writing about the past, and the joys and challenges of writing fiction, non fiction and biography.
A Continent of Great Extent: ‘Writing To the Fair Land’ is a short Powerpoint presentation (about ten minutes).
To The Fair Land is a historical mystery with elements of fantasy set in the eighteenth century, which tells the story of one young man’s quest to discover the truth about a voyage of discovery to the Pacific to look for the mythical Great Southern Continent. In this talk I look at the history behind the story, as well as some of the myths.
You can view the presentation and read the transcript on Substack.
All the posts and presentations on my Substack are free, and there’s no charge for subscribing either.
An interview on 22 October 2016 with Suzie Grogan on Talking Books (10 Radio).