It’s safe to say that Victorians may not have put so much emphasis on the death of loved ones had Prince Albert lived. But when he died in 1861, ending their 21-year marriage, it threw Queen Victoria into a 40-year mourning period…and the rest of the country too! A young Queen Victoria with Prince Albert, … Read more
It’s certainly not what you’d think. Oh, they had parties (the Vics LOVED their parties) with adults dressing up in strange costumes. And there is the Celtic traditions, of course, of Samhain (pronounced SOW-in), meaning “summer’s end” and believed that this particular time of year thinned the veil between the natural world and the supernatural … Read more
Here is the second part of my take on only a few films set in the Victorian era. If you would like to see Part One, go Here. They are in ascending order from the Victorian year the films were set, rather than the year the movie was made. Let’s jump right in! THE HOUND … Read more
I have a love/hate relationship with old films. I love old movies, and I love historical films, and I also hate them, because I know that the hairstyles and costumes will be wrong and it drives me crazy because it is just as easy to GET IT RIGHT. But there are some films that transcend, … Read more
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
Author of Medieval Mysteries, Historicals, and Paranormals