Yesterday my husband and I took our children to Margam Country Park, which is near Port Talbot in south Wales. It is more than 800 acres of pretty landscape and and home of some remarkable historic buildings. To wit: the ruins of Margam Abbey, the Margam Orangery from the Regency period, and Margam Castle. Thus,… Read more Ruins and Regency
The holiday season in the Georgian era was as much like the Yuletide of the Tudor time period as it was like our modern Christmas. Regency holiday traditions sprang from the same combination of Roman and Pagan midwinter rituals as the Medieval ones. Even Oliver Cromwell couldn’t eradicate this festive ideology from the zeitgeist when he… Read more Merry Christmas!
Public popularity is a fickle, fickle thing. In fact, one of the things that will turn the public against you is becoming “too” popular. Worse, there was nothing so loathed in Regency England (and to some extent, today) as an underdog that seemed to be winning; support was on your side only as long as… Read more The Tide Turns Against Caroline of Brunswick
I just got some bad news. Due to an issue with the book layout my publisher just caught, the book launch will be delayed. Since it is almost Christmas, and the Western world tends to shut down and back up at Christmas, the book may not come out until early January now. Well, poop. I’ll… Read more Alas! Woe! Delay!
Mansfield Parsonage comes out this Friday, and I am both a nervous wreck and hella excited all at the same time. It being my first piece of fiction prose, I am as anxious for a good reception as I was for my first “baby”, Blood Will Tell. For some reason, the nonfiction books became easier… Read more December at Mansfield Parsonage
The second wife of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, Maria Ludovica Leopoldina Franziska Therese Josepha Lucia, was born 12 December 1791, the first child of Emperor Francis II of Austria by his second wife, Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily. Her name was revised to the more Francophone form, Maria Louise, when she wed Napoleon in… Read more Happy Birthday to Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma
Violent crime — especially violent crimes perpetrated on innocent, law-abiding members of the middle-class – have long had a hold over the public imagination. There is fascination in the macabre and the horrific that compels us to examine it even as it repels us. We are like monkeys peeking at a snake under our tree;… Read more The Ratcliffe Highway Murders
The end of last week was a busy, busy time for the Kramers. First, our things finally arrived from the USA! Although they took months longer to get her than I expected, 99.9% of my things were unbroken and undamaged … which is excellent considering the miles behind them. Basically, my tea trolley will need… Read more Our First Christmas Panto!