The Day Parliament Burned Down by Caroline Shenton

December 16, 2012

“Never was a spectacle so much enjoyed,” wrote Letitia Landon of the fire that destroyed the old Palace of Westminster on 16th October 1834.  Hundreds of thousands of people gathered to watch open-mouthed, as eight centuries of tradition went up in smoke. There was no need to inform King William IV of this terrible event [...]

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Life according to literature

December 14, 2012

Yes, it’s meme time again, where those who have read prolifically during the year get a much easier ride. Here’s how it works… Using only books you have read this year (2012), answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title. Describe yourself: Queen Victoria’s Stalker (Jan Bondeson) How do you feel: A Simpleton (Charles Reade) [...]

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The First Adman: Thomas Bish and the Birth of Modern Advertising

December 11, 2012

As someone who doesn’t really have her finger on the pulse of the 21st century, I’ve only just caught up with the TV series Mad Men, which appears to be all the rage. The hero is Don Draper, a rather shadowy and shady advertising executive with a knack for creating brands. Although he is supposedly based [...]

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The Excellent Doctor Blackwell: The Life of the First Woman Physician by Julia Boyd

November 18, 2012

Even Punch, a magazine frequently hostile to the emancipated woman, felt grudging admiration for Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910), the first woman doctor to be registered in Britain. From a 21st-century perspective, with women doctors now in the majority, it’s difficult to appreciate just how hard it was for these indefatigable pioneers, who encountered considerable hostility and even [...]

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Weeds by Jerome K. Jerome

October 31, 2012

Jerome K. Jerome is famous, of course, for writing one of the funniest books in the English language: Three Men in a Boat. What is less well known is that he desperately tried to reinvent himself as a serious author. Weeds: A Story in Seven Chapters was published anonymously in 1892, Jerome hoping that the [...]

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Why I Really Like this Podcast

October 26, 2012

Although I spend most of my time fossicking about in the nineteenth century, I do get very excited about the possibilities presented by new technology. While I firmly believe that mobile phones are an abomination (albeit now a necessary one), they are a boon for listening to podcasts on the hoof. My latest discovery is [...]

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Recent acquisitions and other news

October 20, 2012

It’s been all work and no play here recently, so thank you to OUP for cheering me up with a couple of review copies. The first is a handsome new edition of Black Beauty edited by Adrienne Gavin. Gavin also wrote an excellent biography of Anna Sewell, amusingly named Dark Horse, which I thoroughly recommend. [...]

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Hope and Glory: A Life of Dame Clara Butt

October 11, 2012

Sir Thomas Beecham cheekily remarked that when she sang in Dover, Dame Clara Butt could be heard in Calais. If you’ve listened to her rousing performances of Hope and Glory on YouTube, you’ll know that he had a point. Standing an Amazonian 6’2″ tall, Dame Clara was a towering cultural icon of the Victorian and [...]

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Below the Fairy City: A Life of Jerome K. Jerome

September 30, 2012

I must confess to never having given much thought to the man behind Three Men in a Boat, one of the funniest books in the English language. When the manuscript for a biography of Jerome K. Jerome arrived on my desk, I expected to read about a lively and carefree man who never took life [...]

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New publishing technology and what it means for biographers

September 21, 2012

Those of you who either write or enjoy the noble art of biography might be interested in coming along to this panel discussion. It features some very high profile authors and publishers, and me. Having been stuck indoors editing, proofing and designing over the last few months, it’s very exciting to have an outing. I [...]

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