Blog | Lucienne Boyce

The Bristol Suffragettes

To celebrate the release of the SilverWood Selection Box, Lucienne Boyce answers some “frequently asked questions” about how she came to write The Bristol Suffragettes… SilverWood Books have put together …

Spotlight On…Begbrook House, Frenchay, Bristol

On 11 November 1913, the head gardener at Begbrook House in Frenchay near Bristol discovered that the building was on fire. The house stood in its own wooded grounds, and …

Spotlight on Suffragette Florence Feek (1877 – 1940)

The latest Suffragette Spotlight On looks at the work of Worcestershire campaigner, Florence Feek… On 31 March 1909, thirty suffragettes attempted to get into the House of Commons to speak to Prime …

Harriette Wilson and John Murray: Surviving the Brutal Rejection

In July I wrote a blog about bad reviews and how they have always been an occupational hazard for writers. (July 2014, Dismal Trash: The Time-Honoured Art of the Bad …

Xena Warrior Princess v Patient Griselda: Feisty Heroines in Historical Fiction

I had a wonderful time at the Historical Novel Society Conference in London last weekend (5-7 September 2014). There were some great panels and workshops, and it was lovely to …

The gout sticks to me: two previously unknown letters by William Morris : Part 2

Last week on the blog I published the first part of an article about two previously unknown letters by William Morris. The article originally appeared in the William Morris Society …

The gout sticks to me: two previously unknown letters by William Morris

Back in 2011, I did a blog about one of my most treasured possessions: three volumes of the eighth, four-volume edition of William Morris’s The Earthly Paradise (Ellis and White …

Dismal Trash: The Time-Honoured Art of the Bad Review

Every writer knows they run the risk of receiving a bad review. Often the temptation to answer back is strong. The accepted advice is “don’t”, and I think this is …

Spotlight On…Ellen W Pitman (c1857 – ?)

At midnight on Friday 8 October 1909, Nurse Ellen Pitman of Southleigh Road (also known as Leigh Road South), Clifton boarded the train from Bristol to Newcastle. She was on …

The Female Writer’s Apology; Or, Then and Now

In my eighteenth-century thriller, To The Fair Land, Ben Dearlove’s adventures start when he tries to find the anonymous author of a book about a voyage to the South Seas. …

2nd Lt John Alfred Raymond Andrews

Phyllis of the Die-Hards I recently bought on eBay a First World War postcard: Phyllis of the Die-Hards. My interest in the card is in the image, which is …

Georgians Revealed?

I recently went to the British Library’s exhibition “Georgians Revealed: Life, Style and the Making of Modern Britain”. By tracing similarities between our modern lifestyle and that of the era …