International Women’s Day and Mary Stewart

March 10, 2018August 17, 2019 Categories: 17th century3 Comments

Originally posted on Mary Queen of Plots:
Today I spotted a newspaper article looking at ‘five books by women, for women’ to celebrate International Women’s Day. You can imagine my delight when I saw that one of the five is Mary Stewart’s Nine Coaches Waiting! She features alongside Agatha Christie, Shirley Jackson, LM Montgomery and Octavia Butler. Stacy Gillis, Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Newcastle University, has written a wonderful piece about the five books and a culture which has seen women’s writing as ‘something to be controlled, managed and dismissed’. You can read the article here. She…

The Diamonds of Sint-Nicholaas

A new land with the promise of a fresh beginning beckons—or does it? Following on from the pages of Traitor’s Knot, find out what awaits James and Elizabeth Hart in the Netherlands. “The Diamonds of Sint-Nicholaas” is an exclusive short story written for and featured in the Diamond Tales advent series from Discovering Diamonds. I really enjoyed writing it and having the opportunity to share with you how I saw their first month in The Hague. I hope you enjoy the story! To read “The Diamonds of Sint-Nicholaas”, click here.

Did Ollie really cancel Christmas?

December 20, 2017August 19, 2019 Categories: 17th centuryTags: 17th century · 17th Century history · Did Oliver Cromwell Cancel Christmas · English Civil War · historical perspective · Mary Anne Yarde · Myths · Traitor's KnotLeave a comment

Oliver Cromwell has gone down through history as the Grinch that stole Christmas. Is that a fair assessment? Christmas was abolished during the English Civil War and throughout the Interregnum, but how did it really happen? I am participating in a Christmas blog series hosted by Myths, Legends, Books & Coffee Pots where I discuss what happened. Click here to read my article, The Puritans Who Abolished Christmas.

Author Spotlight: Elizabeth St. John

November 8, 2017August 19, 2019 Categories: 17th century · Author SpotlightsTags: 17th century · By Love Divided · Elizabeth St. John · English Civil War · Historical Novel Society · Lydiard Chronicles · Lydiard Park · The Lady of the Tower2 Comments

I first met Elizabeth St. John after one of the sessions at the 2015 Historical Novel Society Conference in Denver. We were waiting to meet the speaker, the lovely Jenny Quinlan (aka Jenny Q) of Historical Editorial, when we struck up a conversation about what we were writing. You should realize that when you’re at a historical fiction conference, you can skip the genre question and go straight to, ‘What period are you writing in?”. We both answered 17th century England, and this pretty much sealed it for us. Elizabeth is blessed with a closet-full of famous relatives from which she…

Gravestones in Dorset

November 2, 2017August 19, 2019 Categories: 17th centuryTags: Dorset · Dorset gravemarkers · Dorset gravestone · St. Michael of Winterbourne Steepleton · St. Nicholas of Abbotsbury · Winterbourne Steepleton4 Comments

I find tombstones fascinating. I’m not really sure why. It may be because they are the last visual marker of a person’s life, and I’m curious as to what they reveal. It’s the old tombstones that I’m drawn to the most, the ones covered in lichen and eaten by wind and rain. Whatever was engraved upon them is usually very nearly erased, and I love the mystery of it. I fully realized this interest after looking back on the pictures I took of my last trip to England. A large proportion of pictures centred around churches, cathedrals, and graveyards. And…