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
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
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
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
The London I write about in my mysteries is never the London you can see today. Not my Crispin Guest Medieval Noir London set in the fourteenth century. Nor my Tudor London set during the reign of Henry VIII in the early sixteenth century for my King’s Fool Mysteries. Structures and city walls are long … Read more
The week before April 5th this year is Passion Week and that is the last stretches of the Triduum, the three days prior to the Feast of the Resurrection or Easter, which includes Holy Thursday, commemorating the institution of the Eucharist; Good Friday, the day Jesus died; and Saturday, the Easter Vigil, the mass where … Read more