This is the excerpt for your very first post.
And now it begins …….
Cogadh na haon deag mbliana or the Eleven Years War
If, like me, the Eleven Years War in Ireland is new and a little confusing, I'll give you some of the information I found while looking for information for The Parting Glass. Having a history degree has it's advantages when writing historical fiction - but it also makes me a little more than pedantic about... Continue Reading →
Conflict in Ireland: new starting point for ‘The Parting Glass’
So, I have a new idea for The Parting Glass. Although it would seem that it began in Scotland, the Irish have certainly adopted and morphed it as their own. And I did originally have visions of my 'hero' in the story to be a dying gentleman of sorts. So I thought I would make him... Continue Reading →
Are writers born or made?
Source: Are writers born or made?
Update on The Parting Glass – total change of angle
Those of you who are following me on this know that I had decided to use both Thomas Armstrongs in my story. But I have tried - and I just cannot get interested in the war history! I'm a social historian and I just can't bring myself to read one more thing about who was... Continue Reading →
Short and sweet today
Been flat out like a lizard drinking lately! But I did manage to read this story from Greg Manuel The Twilight Man - it was so wonderful I just had to share it. Cheers Kerry
More research for ‘The Parting Glass’
I am finally getting back to my research for The Parting Glass after a little detour writing for an anthology submission (more on that as information comes to hand). It is a little difficult getting back to writing something, even if you find it intriguing, after a biggish break. So I needed to get back... Continue Reading →
11 Striking Images from England’s Past
As a writer, I know that a thousand words are sooo important. But, even I have to admit, that sometimes a picture can tell a thousand words.
Choosing 300 images for Picturing England, a book featuring photographs from our Archive, was both a joy and a torment. It was a joy because my colleagues in the Archive unearthed so many fascinating and unfamiliar pictures from our holdings and a torment because we had to leave out so many wonderful photographs.
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Woman’s lover kills husband with axe! William Lucy,his wife Margaret and the king.
The HIstory Jar: always an interesting read
By 1460 rivalries between Richard of York and Henry VI’s favourites had descended from political hostility into open warfare. Having fled to Calais in 1459 in the aftermath of the Ludford Bridge disaster, the earl of Warwick, his father the earl of Salisbury, his uncle Lord Fauconberg and his cousin Edward earl of March arrived back in England at Sandwich with 2,000 men in June 1460. Their numbers snowballed. The city of London fell to the Yorkists with only the Tower of London remaining in Lancastrian hands.
The Lancastrians moved out of their stronghold at Coventry intent upon confronting the gathering white rose host whilst the Yorkists came north with their artillery along Watling Street. Jean de Waurin, the Burgundian chronicler, explained that the Lancastrian army awaited their foes outside Northampton, in a park by a little river (the Nene). The English Chronicle identified the battle as taking place between…
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The journey to the gallows
Between 1571 and 1783, over 1000 people, predominantly men, were executed at Tyburn. During the same period, there were also executions at Smithfield and Tower Hill. Imagine what it would be like to be taking the journey to the gallows: crowds jeering - sometimes numbering as many as 30,000, all manner of insults and objects being... Continue Reading →
