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My Month in Books June 2021

My selected books for June took me from the beauty and culture of the Morris home at Kelmscott House, London in May Morris: Arts and Crafts Designer, Anna Mason et …

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Pugs, Roos and Amazonians: Some Lesser Known Boxing Matches of the Eighteenth Century

In eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain, bare-knuckle boxing was a popular sport which drew followers from across the social spectrum, from the Prince of Wales and the aristocracy down. Charles …

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My Month in Books: May 2021

The two books I’ve chosen to write about this month are Sylvia Townsend Warner’s The Corner That Held Them, and the non-fiction Welsh Legends and Fairy Lore by D Parry-Jones, …

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To The Fair Land on Tour!

This week, 26 April to 2 May 2021, To The Fair Land is on a blog tour, covering twenty one blogs in seven days with a mix of articles, author …

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My Month in Books: April 2021

I’ve picked out two very different books from the titles I read this month. First is Suzie Grogan’s beautiful study of the poet Keats: John Keats: Poetry, Life and Landscapes. …

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Mrs Burnett and Mr Baret: Women at Sea

I’ve recently reissued my first novel, To The Fair Land, with a new cover. Set in the eighteenth century during the Age of Sail, it tells the story of struggling …

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My Month in Books: 2021

I’ve picked out two of the books I read this month which look, in their different ways, at issues around women’s agency in a patriarchal society. First is The Invader, …

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My Month in Books: February 2021

It’s been a women’s-history themed month for both my non-fiction and fiction reading with Wendy Moore’s Endell Street: The Trailblazing Women Who Ran World War One’s Most Remarkable Military Hospital …

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Suffrage Autographs: Cicely Hamilton

I’ve often wondered why owning the signature of someone you admire or are interested in is so appealing. I supposed it is because a signature feels like a part of …

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Authors Alison Morton and Helen Hollick in Conversation

Alison Morton, author of the stunning alternative history Roma Nova series, and Helen Hollick, whose historical fiction ranges across the centuries from King Arthur to pirates of the Caribbean, have …

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My Month in Books: January 2021

Here are two of the books I’ve enjoyed reading this month. They’re both fantasies, but are very different from one another. Kingdoms of Elfin, Sylvia Townsend Warner (HandheldPress) This collection …

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Tea and Suffrage

In 2006 the BBC Antiques Road Show was filmed at the University of Sydney. One of the items their experts valued was a suffragette tea set manufactured in Staffordshire by …

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