Hi, Everyone! I hope this finds you all well. I had quite a nice surprise yesterday when I checked my Amazon profile – I saw that 100 Facts is available to pre-order now, and the cover image features Prince William II of Orange. Although not a Stuart himself, he married one (Mary Stuart, Princess Royal and Princess of… Read on
Last week, I was tagged by my friend Anna Belfrage in this blog hop. First of all, I’d like to say how much I admire Anna. I’ve known her virtually for a few years and she is a historical fiction writer and has written The Graham Saga. This is a series of books set in the 17th-century, so… Read on
Having finished reading the novel a few days ago, last night I sat down to watch the 1998 film version of Frenchman’s Creek. A huge amount of the story was changed. Instead of being set in the Restoration court under Charles II, it was set during the Glorious Revolution in 1688. There are loads of Dutchmen as a… Read on
When I finished listening to the audiobook version of Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier, I was left sitting at my kitchen table in floods of tears. What a moving story! The first thing I thought after I finished was that this was rather like The Bridges of Madison County – a woman is married to someone and has children… Read on
Armonia Celeste is a US-based Early music ensemble of three women’s voices and plucked-string period instruments. They specialise in Italian music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque – so as soon as I could I purchased their 2015 album Udite, amanti: Music from Seventeenth-Century Barberini Courts which contains eighteen tracks of excellent music. I knew about them from their Twitter page. (This social… Read on
The 23rd of April is St. George’s Day here in England. There is something inherently romantic in the many artistic depictions of St. George. He is often in full armour, brandishing a weapon, and on the verge of killing a dragon. Later on in this post, I hope to convey the importance of St. George in the history… Read on
Once again, Audible delivered the goods. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this excellent lecture series by Professor Alan Charles Kors. For those of you who study philosophy, the content may not bring anything new to the table, but for the rest of us I found it immensely enlightening. Some other reviewers have been overly harsh about Professor Kors’s delivery and… Read on
Two Sundays ago (my how time flies!), I attended the 8am Easter Sunday service at the iconic Basilica di San Marco by the Piazza San Marco, Venezia, Italy. In this, the first of a series of articles from my recent trip to Venice, I would like to briefly cover a fraction of the history of this building and… Read on