Welcome to the first penitential season of the year. It was Shrove Tuesday yesterday and today is Ash Wednesday. “Shrove” is past tense for “shrive,” an archaic term “to confess.” It was a day to be absolved, to prepare for the penitential season of Lent ahead. This day is more recently known as “Fat Tuesday” because … Read more
Sometimes you come across something that peaks your interest. And the bobbin hat is certainly one of them. I was watching an episode of BBC’s The Repair Shop in which everyday British people bring in family heirlooms that are treasured by them; a metal toy car from when they were a kid, a doll received … Read more
Sometimes, I really agonize over what name I will give a character. Two factors are involved, especially in my historicals but it also counts for contemporary stories regionally; Is the name appropriate to the era, and for the country (England) or region in any contemporary novel set in the United States I might be writing … Read more
Whenever there are historical things about, there are people who know nothing but myths, people who THINK they know, and people – like me – who have actually researched it. Henry was a difficult man to parse. There is the outer Henry, the one most of us see in history books or depicted for good … Read more
In my fourth King’s Fool Mysteries, DEVIL’S GAMBIT, Henry VIII weds his fourth wife, the German gentlewoman Anne of Cleves. It would have been an arduous journey to come to England, meet the king to see if he liked her, to be accepted…or sent back in disgrace. Instead, Henry’s court painter, Hans Holbein the Younger, … Read more
Yes, the iconic fast food of fried and battered fish served with hot chips (or what we would call French fries) served wrapped in newspaper, is a symbol of Great Britain. It excluded from rationing during WWI and WWII as it was a universal favorite and in order to keep up morale it was given … Read more
Back in the days when I was a kid in school, I was more or less the token Jew. So every year I was asked by grade school teachers to give a presentation of the meaning of Hanukkah. And I was only too glad to do it, because I was a little weary of the … Read more
In the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods, mashers (lecherous and predatory men…and yes, we still have them. Just cast your gaze towards the White House) were often defeated by the woman’s last weapon of resort; the hat pin. These pins were used to…well, pin a hat to her hair. No chin straps for these … Read more
Are we ready to choose wisely? We just can’t get away from the Holy Grail. It’s stuck in our minds in popular culture. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Monty Python and the Holy Grail/Spamalot. The Da Vinci Code. But what is it exactly? We think of it as the one thing, the cup of … Read more
You might recognize the title of this blog post from the musical “My Fair Lady” wherein linguist Henry Higgins laments that the English language was being corrupted by its many dialects. Indeed, George Bernard Shaw, who penned the original play “Pygmalion” on which “My Fair Lady” was based, was supposed to have said, “The English … Read more