Category: Uncategorized

My novel “Aqueduct to Nowhere” takes place in ancient Tarraco (modern day Tarragona) during the wild 7-day Roman festival of Saturnalia. Research told me the basics of the festival. Saturnalia began on 17-Dec and ran until 25-Dec. The festival paid tribute to Saturn, the agricultural God of Sowing and Husbandry. Saturn. Source: talesofcuriosity.com The final…

I have realized that local history scholarship is often met with a dismissive sort of condescension by some historians. If you are self-identified as a scholar of local history you are often received within the academy as professionally akin to a ‘backyard archaeologist” i.e. someone who digs in his own garden in search of relics…

As Darcy and Elizabeth’s #2 fan (after my friend Naomi) I was always going to be biased reading and reviewing this book. When I finished Longbourn I tried to imagine if I would’ve read it differently if I knew nothing of Pride and Prejudice? The beauty and attraction of Austen’s novel is with the ‘upstairs’ family,…

How did unrelated places such as Portugal and the Caribbean islands end up with hundreds of recipes for salted cod sourced from Newfoundland and Norway? What does the availability of nutmeg during the middle ages in the UK say about Southeast Asian and European relations? Why do some food words simply transliterate into English? The Nahuatl…

Everyone loves a good ghost story, this much is true. They chill you to your core and more often than not, make your hairs stand on end. But what do we love more than a mere ghost story? Well, a historical one of course! Turn of the lights, get in bed. Pull the covers over…

“So, you dress on the weekends?”…how many times have I heard that? It’s usually at that point in the party, road trip, after work drink or whatever, when the group has split into pairs or threes. And the quick answer is….well…yes. About a decade ago, I found out that a friend of mine was into…

I have been back and forth about writing this post for a few months now, because it seems to open a cultural can of worms. A while ago I wrote a post giving advice for people who wanted to pursue a career in the cultural sector. The result was a barrage of criticism and cynicism….

Men in uniform and an historic house – what could be a more perfect way to spend a Tuesday?! With that very thought in mind I visited Beningbrough at War, an exhibition that sits within the Yorkshire Country House Partnership (YCHP) HLF funded project ‘Duty Calls: The Country House in Time of War’ (what a…

So, despite taking a module entitled “The Crusades” in my second year of university, I ashamedly admit the finer points of each crusade has faded in my mind. I was therefore excited to begin reading ‘The Empress’ by Meg Clothier, and hoped it would quickly jog my memory whilst I lost myself in a historical…

Two Anne’s. One fighting for her Queen-ship, the other head of Princess Mary’s household. They may have shared the same name, but it seems very unlikely they would have shared a friendship.  During the early 16th Century (and prior to one of them being decapitated!) there were two Anne Boleyn’s ‘treading the boards’ at the…