Now, I am not at all a cat person but I just can’t resist Susan Herbert’s quirky, charming watercolours of famous paintings with cats instead of people. There are lots of them around but here are a few of my favourites:
I think that this one is my favourite.
There is something faintly disturbing about this one of Nicholas II and his family though!
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin on the 13th October 1854.
Now, this may come as a surprise to many people (or perhaps not?) but I loathed and hated school and did everything that I could to avoid it, even developing a pretty serious truancy problem until I was in the second year of my GCSEs and my new English teacher, Mrs Parrott introduced me to the works of Oscar Wilde. I was instantly smitten by everything about him and devoured everything that he wrote as well as the fabulous Richard Ellman biography, which I have often cited since as being one of the books that had the most profound effect on me.
Poor Oscar. I love him still and in fact have named one of my sons after both him and his favourite saint, Sebastian. I remember the first time I went to Père Lachaise in Paris, aged seventeen and full of tremulous gothic self consciousness as I walked in my black lace rags to the back of the cemetery, bearing a single perfect white lily to place on his lipstick kiss covered marble monument.
Oh, Oscar. There will never be anyone quite like you again.
Marie Antoinette was guillotined on the 16th October 1793 at the age of thirty seven. Broken and depressed by the terrible ordeal of her imprisonment and separation from her beloved family, the formerly exquisite and carefree Queen of France was old before her time and to some extent her end must have come as a merciful release from the horror that her life had become.
RIP Marie Antoinette.
Someone just emailed me this. How awesome! I don’t know if you can see the detailing but the Sugar Chateau boot is covered with a cute little map showing the locations of, you guessed it, châteaux and cathedrals in France. I’m slightly tempted.
Can you spot Versailles?
I’ve been a bit quiet lately thanks to general busy busy, my husband being ill and my root filling taking forever to settle down. There are few things more ennui inducing than constant tooth ache.
I made it to the last round of casting for Come Dine With Me, which was good but then decided to pull out the morning that they were due to come to the flat and film me. I’m not sure what happened but logistics panicked me a bit and I had a look around my home and realised that I just really am not comfortable with the idea of anyone seeing what it looks like right now, as I fight a losing battle with mess and clutter.
I have let my writing slide too, mainly through toothache induced apathy. I should sort it out really!
"You'd find it easier to be bad than good if you had red hair," said Anne reproachfully. "People who haven't red hair don't know what trouble is." - Anne of Green Gables.
I am a middle class housewife, History geek, Versailles obsessive, Paris lover, historical fiction writer, Victorian Prostitute re-enactor, Art History graduate, committed vegetarian, GIN taster, curry lover and Pimms addict living in the deepest darkest West Country with my family.
I'm a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, Whitechapel Society and London Historians and also a reviewer for the Historical Novel Society.
I shouldn't really need to say this but all the written content on this site is my own work and copyrighted to me so please ask before using elsewhere. I've come across a couple of sites now that have lifted my work without any acknowledgement and it leaves a nasty taste to be honest and makes me YOUR ENEMY FOR LIFE.
Most of the art work is a free for all so help yourself so long as it isn't for reasons of personal gain and iniquity, but a lot is down to my own lame photographic skills so please ask if you suspect this to be the case.
I'm really dedicated to introducing people to gorgeous art work that they might not otherwise have seen - I try my best to ensure that the works that I feature fall within the boundries of fair use and are either my own work, freely available or I have permission from the source. However, if I have accidentally posted up something that I really ought not to have done, let me know and I'll remove it straight away! Thanks!
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