Georgian Britain, setting for The Jacobites' Apprentice. But what, exactly, did the Georgians ever do for us? Coffee houses Coffee houses had existed in Oxford and London since the middle of the 17th Century, but they really flourished in the Georgian era, spreading also to other provincial cities. The price of entrance was generally … [Read more...] about Jacobites – Ten things we may owe to Georgian Britain
Zulu War – Ten Things You May Not Know
The Kraals of Ulundi: A Novel of the Zulu War sparks some interesting issues... The 1964 Film Zulu and Apartheid The film was directed by American screenwriter Cy Endfield and produced by Stanley Baker and Endfield, with Joseph E. Levine as executive producer. The screenplay is by John Prebble and Endfield, based on an article by Prebble, … [Read more...] about Zulu War – Ten Things You May Not Know
Sixth Century Britain – Festivals and Celebrations
The Song-Sayer’s Lament is set around the year we would now describe as 540 AD, in Sixth Century Dark Age Britain, and I wanted to mark the passage of time for my characters in a way that might be credible for the period in question. Why? Because, in truth, we have no idea how Britons, in the century after the Romans left our shores, calculated … [Read more...] about Sixth Century Britain – Festivals and Celebrations
Sixth Century Britain – the Hill Fort Walks: Part One
The Song-Sayer’s Lament is my fifth novel, this one set in Sixth Century Britain and, since it’s always my habit to check out the locations I’ve used as settings, I recently began to walk some of the wild ground over which the story takes place. And, since that story starts in the ancient kingdom of Rhos, I began my journeys at the North Wales … [Read more...] about Sixth Century Britain – the Hill Fort Walks: Part One
Waterloo – Women on the Battlefield and the Lengths They’ll Go To!
It frightens me to think that I first read Stendhal’s The Charterhouse of Parma almost fifty years ago. And, I have to be honest, I didn’t enjoy it very much as a teenager. The adventures of Fabrice del Dongo weren’t particularly exciting, in my eyes, and the author’s depiction of the Battle of Waterloo seemed almost farcical. But, of course, back … [Read more...] about Waterloo – Women on the Battlefield and the Lengths They’ll Go To!