Deborah Swift is a novelist and poet. Passionate about reading and writing, Deborah was told as a child that she spent too much time with her “nose stuck in a book” – which, we agree, is not a bad thing! Writing from her home in the Lake District, Deborah draws inspiration from the stunning backdrop…
Author: HistoricalHoney
EXCLUSIVE: Anne O’Brien & The Forbidden Queen
Anne was born in Yorkshire, and now resides in the beautiful Welsh Marches of Herefordshire. After teaching for a number of years, Anne decided to leave the profession and chose to pursue her love of writing. Her first historical romance, A Regency, was published in 2005. Her latest work, ‘The Forbidden Queen’ centres on Katherine…
Who Really Started the Great Fire of London?
Before the ashes settled on the devastation that was London after the Great Fire in 1666, rumours spread like erm… fire about who had started it and why they felt the need to burn the hell out of the city!? Mid 17thC London was a suspicious place, with many goings on. We were in the middle of…
Krystyna Skarbek: Female Spy Extraordinaire.
It was the summer of 1952 and the British people to were shocked to the core. A report of the brutal murder of a woman in a Kensington hotel sparked a media frenzy, and quickly whipped the populace into a state of panic. The victim was a Polish beauty queen, named Krystyna Skarbek. Codename: Christine Glanville. …
The Cat that conquered Ancient Egypt
Throughout ancient history there have been many weapons that have changed forever the world in which the people of the time lived. So, which one would I write about? This required some serious consideration… The 420 feet long Hellenistic Warships were an early contender (7000 crew on board? That’s impressive), then I had to consider the…
Villanous Vixens
We often hear about villains in Medieval and Renaissance history, for example, King John, Edward the Black Prince and Cesare Borgia. But where are the stories about naughty women? Were there villainous women during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance? OF COURSE! Here’s a look at a few women well known for their infamy… 1. Isabella…
The Love of A Lifetime by Mary Fitzgerald
Oh, Secret Book Club, I love you. I love you for always giving me a book I never would choose and then letting me be honest about it. ‘The Love of A Lifetime’ is an odd book; it’s a novel about an old, old man dying of cancer on the family farm. The basic premise…
12 of the Worlds Strangest Museums
Source: CRRA If you are looking for an exhibition that is totally rubbish, then this might be for you. Central to their display is the Trash-o-saurus which is made from a ton of trash, signifying the amount the average person generates each year. To really demonstrate the recycling process, visitors are allowed to walk through…
How to become a Renaissance Pope
The history of Papal elections is full of intrigue, plotting, bribery and in some rare instances, holiness. By the mid-fifteenth century the form for Papal elections was firmly established after the chaos of the Avignon schism. Unfortunately, Conclaves of the fifteenth century were shrouded in secrecy and tight security so very few accounts survive. So…
Still Waters by Katie Flynn
When Still Waters first dropped through my letterbox at its full 672 pages, I wasn’t phased. I usually read epic fantasy which can easily be a third again as long. But this wasn’t fantasy, it was a fictional story of a girl’s attempt to find herself amidst family tragedy and wartime hardship. We first meet…