Unusual Historicals (Free subscription) | 11/02/2009
By Blythe Gifford For most writers of historical romance, the "mother of all dynasties" is the English royal family. Many of us have a vague notion of the medieval segment of the story: the Plantagenets, Lancaster, York, and the War of the Roses, the Tudors, and finally, the Stuarts/Stewarts from Scotland after Queen Elizabeth died childless. The official family tree is hard to follow, but...
Reading the Past (Free subscription) | 09/19/2009
I've really enjoyed reading all the contest entries this past week. Without further ado, it's time to draw the winner's name. This morning Random.org picked the winner as contest entrant #2, which is Mantelli! Congratulations, Mantelli, and I hope you enjoy the book. I'll be in touch shortly. This wasn't meant to be a formal survey, but I found it fascinating to read about the novels that got everyone...
Writer's Daily Grind (Free subscription) | 09/06/2009
Recently on a venue where people discuss historical mysteries, people got into a discussion about anachronisms in historical mysteries taking place in relatively recent times. Somebody brought up a book they'd read, where the writer had the women wearing pantyhose back in the 1920s. Nobody disagreed that this was anachronistic, even though women nowadays -- if they can possibly avoid it -- tend not...
Feral Library Tales (Free subscription) | 06/27/2009
Via Ruminations "Fifteen in Fifteen minutes" the fifteen that I remember with ease seem to fall into two basic categories, SciFi and historical.. I was a voracious reader and my neighbour 4 years older than me had an interesting bookcase, as did my Grandfather and my Mother. A Traveller in Time - Alison Uttley (Mary Queen of Scots/war time Britian) Dune - Frank Herbert (Control, complete...
Beattie's Book Blog (Free subscription) | 06/25/2009
Libraries tap into Twitter Increasing numbers of librarians are using Twitter to engage readers and spread information Alison Flood in the guardian.co.uk , Wednesday 24 June 2009 Libraries throughout the UK are testing the waters of Twitter as a way to both engage with their readers and dispel their image as fusty, silent enclaves staffed by old-fashioned introverts. At the British Library (@britishlibrary),...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 06/24/2009
Increasing numbers of librarians are using Twitter to engage readers and spread information Libraries throughout the UK are testing the waters of Twitter as a way to both engage with their readers and dispel their image as fusty, silent enclaves staffed by old-fashioned introverts. At the British Library (@britishlibrary), they're talking about riding on John Berger's motorbike; "about as good...
What We're Reading Now (Free subscription) | 04/22/2009
Katherine by Anya Seton is one of those books that is right up my alley. I first read it when I was in high school, before my Anglophilia went rampant. It was however, right at the perfect time when the romance part of this novel was best appreciated by my melodramatic teenage heart. It is the novelization of [...]
Ace and Hoser Blook (Free subscription) | 02/23/2009
Katherine by Anya Seton Historical Fiction This book is listed as #95 on the BBC Top 100, which is why I read it. I had never heard of Anya Seton before but I'm very glad that the BBC list has exposed me to her. Katherine tells the story of Katherine Roet, whose father was a knight but was killed in war and whose sister is a lady in waiting for the Queen in 1366. Katherine spends the first part of...
dovegreyreader scribbles (Free subscription) | 02/11/2009
I have always enjoyed a good historical novel, ever since those Anya Seton's and Jean Plaidy's used to fly around the Form 3C classroom and I still have some of my contributions to the central lending pot. We'd all buy...
Between the Covers (Free subscription) | 03/26/2008
As soon as I saw this, I knew I had to sign up. (‘This’ meaning the challenge - not the button. Nothing at all to do with the button. Really . . . ) Historical fiction is always in plentiful supply in my TBR pile(s), and Annie has defined it to include classics too :-) Not that one needs an excuse to re-read Jane Austen! In chronological order of setting, my choices are: Here be Dragons...
The Telegraph (Free subscription) | 10/11/2007
Helen Castor reviews Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and His Scandalous Duchess by Alison Weir
Brit Lit Blogs (Free subscription) | 06/16/2007
Just browsing the Virago website when really I'm supposed to be writing my next piece for newbooksmag or reading Long Barn First novels and I had a little gasp because I see they are re-publishing another of those books that "made me". The books of years ago that had such a huge impact seem to be everywhere at the moment. I came across a shelf full of revamped Jean Plaidy's the other day,...
PaperBackSwap.com (Free subscription) | 04/21/2007
Condensed versions of: A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman The Camerons by Robert Crichton The Japanese by Jack Seward Green Darkness by Anya Seton LCCCN: 50-12721
Reading the Past (Free subscription) | 02/09/2007
Occasionally I get questions from people asking why the HNS bothers reviewing novels that are reprints. The February HNR , for example, contains reviews of Anya Seton's The Winthrop Woman and Ben Ames Williams' A House Divided, both reissued by Chicago Review Press in late 2006; William Golding's To the Ends of the Earth , a 3-in-1 compilation of his classic sea trilogy, from Farrar Straus & Giroux;...
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