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Recently on no more wriggling…
- Sorry Nigel Farage – Talking Books loved ‘Talking France’…
- Talking crime – on why we love a good murder mystery….
- Let’s focus on the words: Peter, Tony, and a Portrait of Keats
- Why Mrs T should have left the room quietly, closing the door behind her….
- ‘In relation to’ what? On ‘Talking Books’ and chewing words….
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Tag Archives: Victorian
On Victorian London, forensics and writing inspiration: a conversation with D.E. Meredith, author of The Devil’s Ribbon
Today I am lucky enough to have a guest on my blog – the author D. E. Meredith writer of the historical crime series, The Hatton and Roumande Mysteries featuring the first forensic scientist, Professor Adolphus Hatton, and his trusty … Continue reading
Posted in Author interviews, Book, London, Reading, Writing
Tagged Books, crime novel, D. E. Meredith, history, London, reading, The Devil's Ribbon, Victorian, whodunnit, writing
1 Comment
On Shelley, secrets and weaving fact with fiction in ‘A Treacherous Likeness’….
One of my favourite reads of 2012 was Tom All Alone’s by Lynn Shepherd. The grim realities of Victorian Britain were brought to life for a 21st century audience and the fictional worlds of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins (often … Continue reading
Sarah’s story – family history and poetry from the darkest places…
In a previous post, I wrote of Sarah Hardiman, the first (and only legal) wife of my Great Grandfather George Hardiman. George Hardiman was a journeyman silversmith, born in 1839 in an impoverished part of Clerkenwell, North London. Sarah (nee … Continue reading
Calling Clerkenwell home – roots in roguish & revolutionary soil
The line between ‘family’ and ‘social’ history is becoming ever more blurred. For me, studying my tree has always been more about the history surrounding the lives of my ancestors than finding each and every distant relation. I know I … Continue reading
Posted in Family History, History, London
Tagged Clerkenwell, Crime, Family History, George Gissing, history, London, poverty, research, Victorian
6 Comments
Sir Robert Peel, riots & the role of the police. Why ‘zero tolerance’ shouldn’t be tolerated…
I have thus far resisted the temptation to rant about the riots and the response of both politicians and the press. As a Londoner by birth I was deeply depressed at the site of many of my old North and … Continue reading
Wordsworth, Whistler and a Waterloo Sunset – the beauty of London Bridges
The Thames is a river that takes me on imaginative journeys, some of them reflecting my real life and others a dream world that I have inhabited regularly since I left London in the late 1980s. From the Oxfordshire … Continue reading
The Clerkenwell Outrage of 1867 – Irish Republicanism in London
In 1868 Queen Victoria wrote a disturbing note to the then Home Secretary. She was deeply unhappy ” to see the failure of the evidence against all but one of the Clerkenwell criminals… it seems dreadful for these people to … Continue reading
Posted in History
Tagged Clerkenwell, Fenian, history, Independence, IRB, Ireland, London, Republicanism, Victorian
4 Comments
‘This enormous Babel of a place’ – On learning of London before the Victorians
I have recently been looking into the history of London between 1810 and 1830 to add some context to my blog posts on the poet John Keats. It is a period in the history of the metropolis that I have … Continue reading
In Praise of Pooter and a Victorian Christmas
Update – December 5th 2012 Last night I took the old address book down in readiness for the annual Grogan Christmas Card Writing Ritual. For my poor husband it is something of a chore and probably the one time in … Continue reading
