Blog | Lucienne Boyce

“Madder than ever”: The Tollemache Family of Batheaston

In 1894 Reverend Clement Reginald Tollemache (1835–1895) moved to The Villa, Batheaston with his wife, Frances Josephine, and three daughters, Mary, Grace and Aethel. The family had been living in …

‘A Reformer’s Wife ought to be a heroine’: Women in the London Corresponding Society

In The Butcher’s Block, the second Dan Foster Mystery, Bow Street Runner Dan Foster infiltrates a fictitious, extremist branch of the London Corresponding Society (LCS) in Southwark, London. The LCS …

It’s not just the Suffragettes! A Blue Plaque for Bristol’s non-militant suffrage campaigners

A Blue Plaque to the Bristol and West of England Women’s Suffrage Society will be unveiled on 15 December 2018. Although I’ve written about the militant suffragettes, why was it …

Captain James Cook at the British Library – Exhibition

In August 2018 I saw the British Library exhibition “Captain Cook: The Voyages”. I was particularly interested in it because Cook’s voyages were one of the inspirations behind my first …

Anne and Mary: Pirates! A Guest Blog by Helen Hollick

Theirs was a harsh life, overshadowed each day by the presence of death, but the lure of gold, the excitement of the Chase – and the freedom that life aboard …

Spotlight on…Adela Pankhurst (1885-1961)

…governess, she was shipped off to Australia in 1914. Here her career traced a trajectory from socialist to conservative, with several imprisonments along the way. Initially she worked for feminist,…

A Continent of Great Extent: Writing To The Fair Land

Some of you may remember Pythagoras and his theorem from maths lessons at school – and if like me you weren’t keen on maths, then I’m sure he didn’t endear …

No Votes for Women 100 – Mrs Mary Humphry Ward

In all the commemorations around the one hundredth anniversary of votes for (some) women, it’s easy to forget that there were many women who didn’t want the vote. In 1908 …

Spotlight On: Mabel Tothill 1869-1964

Mabel Tothill was a Quaker, a tireless worker for social reform , and a non-militant suffragist. She was born in Liverpool and her family moved to Bristol when her father …

Very Poor, Very Rich, or Very Bad: A Tour Around Bristol Archives

I had a fantastic afternoon at the West of England and South Wales Women’s History Network behind-the-scenes tour of Bristol Archives on 17 October 2017. Archivist Allie Dillon explained that …

Silver Sound 28 April 2017: Books, Books and More Books

“I do believe that something very magical can happen when you read a good book.” J K Rowling Today’s show was inspired by World Book Night which was on 23 …

Offside at the Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol

Last evening I went to see Offside at the Wardrobe Theatre in Old Market, Bristol. The play, by Sabrina Mahfouz and Hollie McNish, was performed by Daphne Kouma, Tanya-Loretta Dee …