There, I said it. This is a bit different to my usual posts, but I’m SO frustrated and angry at the unveiling of this new statue to celebrate and honour Mary Wollstonecraft “the mother of feminism”. Some quick caveats. 1) I think the aims of the group that have campaigned for the statue (Mary on… Read More I hate the Mary Wollstonecraft statue
Elizabeth of York is mostly known for three things: the Princes in the Tower (her brothers); Henry VII (her husband) and Henry VIII (her son). But did you know she was one of seven sisters? As daughters of Edward IV, these seven sisters should have lived very different lives – as princesses they should have… Read More Elizabeth of York and her sisters: Five things to know about the Princesses of York
First of all, if you haven’t checked it out, take a little read of my other post, the pros of writing historical fiction about a real person. There are many pros, including the fact it’s one of my favourite kind of novels to read and we all know your main objective is to please me.… Read More Writing Historical Fiction: The Cons of Writing About Real People
Wolf Hall. Regeneration. The Other Boleyn Girl. Some of my favourite historical fiction is based on the life of a real person, and I’m not alone in this. Stroll through the shelves of a library and bookshops and there’s countless books about the wives of Henry VIII, the families of the Wars of the Roses,… Read More Writing Historical Fiction: The Pros of Writing About Real People
Today I’m going to talk about the history of make up. It’s not something I ever really consider my forte but I’ve started wearing make up again, following months of bare-faced lockdown and furlough. And you know what? I feel better with it on. I feel more “dressed”. It makes me more productive, I swear… Read More A History of Make Up: From the Tudors to the Victorians
As the “oldest profession in the world”, the history of sex work is long and complicated by society’s weird relationship with it. For centuries sex workers have occupied an odd space in society: reviled, segregated, treated as a necessary evil, pitied, seen in need of rescuing, seen as being vital parts to the economy…but not… Read More A History of Sex Work: The “Common Prostitute”
The paparazzi would have loved Charles Brandon. He had everything you’d want for some good, gossipy stories – he was handsome and charming, rose to the top of the Tudor court from near the bottom and he hung out with all the A-Listers (he is the only close friend and courtier of Henry VIII’s to… Read More Nobles Go Dating: The Five Wives of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk
Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that there was more than one woman in Elizabethan England. The Queen dominates the show, with a few notable exceptions – Mary, Queen of Scots*, Bess of Hardwick, and er… well that’s it really. But there’s hundreds of Elizabethan women who are just as interesting, and today I’m going to… Read More The Fascinating Elizabethan Women You’ve Never Heard Of
An academic summary of thoughts in the history of menstruation: PERIODS? EW! That is not a flippant comment. For literally thousands of years menstruation has been considered disgusting, unclean and generally incredibly gross and not something to be talked about. This is why the first adverts to show sanitary products being tested with red liquid… Read More A History of Menstruation
Famously, Queen Victoria didn’t believe that lesbians existed. She’s not the only one to think that, despite evidence of queer female love and sex cropping up all through history. Same-sex desire, and attitudes towards it, have changed over the course of human history, but women’s sex lives have always occupied a slightly odder place than… Read More Queer Female History: attitudes towards sex
