Jeri Westerson In every era, there are those things that just seem indispensable. And yet, as fashion trends come and go, so do these “indispensable” items. Inflatable crinoline from a Punch cartoon, 1857 Sarah Forbes Binetta, 1862 The most are probably undergarments. Though corsets and garter belts made a comeback for a certain kind of accessory … Read more
Maybe she read some books, but many of her critics didn’t think so. According to Time Magazine, she reviewed 4-6 books a day! Overall, by the time of her death in 2015, she had reviewed 31,014 books, most of which were on Amazon. Let’s go back a bit to the early 2000s. There was a … Read more
If you, like me, love antiques, then you probably watch, like me, several shows about them; the British Antiques Roadshow, the British Celebrity Antiques Roadtrip (a competition show where two celebrity guests have 400 pounds to spend each on antiques they buy to bring to auction and the one who makes the most–or loses the … Read more
Concerned for the ever-growing crime rate, Victorians were all for punishment for crimes. It was the style of this punishment that were having trouble with. In the Mikado, a Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera from 1885, there is a song sung by the Emperor of Japan called A More Humane Mikado, with the refrain, “Let … Read more
Maps are invaluable to the writer, especially when there is no other way to access the setting of a bygone era. I am especially drawn to maps since my first published outing of a fourteenth century London for my Crispin Guest Medieval Noir mysteries. Through maps, I could see the evolution of London itself, from … Read more
I love graphic novels. I tried to pen one before, but wasn’t successful at figuring out which panels to do. I’m leaving that one to experts. But every now and then, I think adding a few illustrations to a book can be fun, for the writer as well as the reader. The first time I … Read more
It’s really not so bad. I can quit at any time. Any time. But I won’t! I am writing two series at the same time, a Tudor mystery series called the King’s Fool Mysteries with Henry VIII’s real court jester Will Somers as the sleuth, and alternating with a Victorian cozy and Sherlockian pastiche called … Read more
With my fifth Irregular Detective Mystery THE MAGICIAN’S MISADVENTURE releasing on December first of this year, I had to do some research into the music hall, so here’s a bit of background history. . Charles Morton, impresario, was the original theatre manager for what was to become the Royal Canterbury Theatre of Varieties in London. … Read more
Many of us think of the Victorian period of genteel people dressed to the nines — men in their starched collars and fitted suits, mustaches, perhaps even side whiskers, parted pomaded hair…and women in their corseted bodices, voluminous skirts, and bountiful, coifed hair — sitting in their drawing rooms with tea cups in hand and … Read more
I don’t know if it’s unique to Los Angeles, my hometown, but LA is the home of the dream factory, that is, motion pictures, and I don’t think Angelinos ever get tired of dreaming about what could be. So after World War I, and as films became the number one kind of entertainment in the … Read more