Archive by Author

Young Elizabeth: The Making of our Queen

29 May

I’m not really caught up in the Jubilee excitement yet, which is a bit peculiar as I usually love that sort of thing. I’ve started eyeing up Jubilee mugs, tins and tea towels though so perhaps it’s just about to hit me and we’ll be buried beneath a landslide of commemorative ware by the end of the week.

One thing that I have bought is the latest Kate Williams book about the Queen, which like her earlier book Becoming Queen about the young Queen Victoria, focusses on the early life of Elizabeth II, arguing that it is the upbringing and youth of a monarch that determines what sort of ruler they will be become. I’m not sure that this is entirely true but it’s a nice theory and gives us an excuse for a really detailed look at the often ignored or skated over formative years of queenly figures.

Young Elizabeth: The Making of our Queen is, not entirely unexpectedly, an engrossing read and carries the reader from the childhood of the Queen’s awkward father Bertie through her childhood as the adored pet of the usually formidable George V and Queen Mary, on through her adolescence during the Second World War and then romance with the dashing naval officer Prince Philip to her glorious Coronation in 1953, giving us a potted social history of the country along the way from the often rather limited point of view of the Royal Family. It’s a fascinating tale of unrequited love, badly behaved Kings, revolution, war and dogs and although academic enough not to feel patronising, is also on the right side of gossipy so you don’t feel sullied by reading it. Don’t you find that you feel a bit grubby after reading some biographies of the Royal Family?

This isn’t whitewashed though – the pre-marital romantic interludes of both George VI and Prince Philip are dealt with in a matter of fact way and the relationship of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson isn’t romanticised at all, with Wallis coming across as a rather nasty piece of work in this book. What is really touching though is the way that Williams discusses the romance of Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend – how very sad it must have been. There’s a mention too of Margaret creeping through the side doors of Buckingham Palace that made me laugh as my grandfather used to do guard duty there and at Clarence House and saw Elizabeth, Philip and Margaret all the time. He apparently saw Princess Margaret fall drunkenly out of a taxi on at least one occasion. She was superb.

Other anecdotes that I really enjoyed included the abdicated Edward VIII sitting by the radio listening to his brother’s Coronation in his place while calmly knitting a blue jumper for his Wallis; Prince Philip taking to the sofa at Treetops in despair when he heard the news of his wife’s accession to the throne and draping a copy of the Times over his face and Queen Mary’s unhappiness at having to return to London to ‘be Queen Mary again’ after her time in the countryside during World War Two. There are snippets like this all through the book, some of which are well known but others that were fairly new to me.

Above all though this book really brings to life the character of Elizabeth the young Queen and paints a touching and vivid picture of a serious, rather shy, good humoured and above all dutiful girl who adored animals and her family and felt betrayal (particularly that of her once favourite uncle David and then former governess Crawfie) very very keenly. Her careful and rather infantilising upbringing was a stark contrast to that enjoyed by her grandchildren now – her parents didn’t want her to appear too ‘intellectual’ (the opportunity to have an honorary degree from Cambridge was turned down as they didn’t want people to perceive her as a bit of a bluestocking) so her education was surprisingly rudimentary all things considered. She also shared a room with Princess Margaret and wore matching clothes until well into her teens and at an age when she ought to have been enjoying coming out balls was still considered part of the nursery.

I think this is underlined by the fact that she was fourteen when she made her famous address to the children of the Commonwealth in 1940, but sounds much much younger. ‘We know, everyone of us, that in the end all will be well; for God will care for us and give us victory and peace. And when peace comes, remember it will be for us, the children of today, to make the world of tomorrow a better and happier place. My sister is by my side and we are both going to say goodnight to you. Come on, Margaret. Goodnight, children. Goodnight, and good luck to you all.‘

Oh man, that makes me cry every time. I’m actually sitting here with a little tear snaking down my cheek. I can’t even begin to imagine how people at the time must have felt to hear that. When US soldiers came to the UK during the war they were instructed that under no circumstances whatsoever should they EVER say anything critical about the King, Queen and Princesses. Times have changed and not always for the best, but it can be hard in these cynical times to recall that there was a point when we absolutely and fervently adored our Royal Family. It’s amazing that when Elizabeth got engaged to Prince Philip, several thousand young women, many of whom were also brides to be, sent her some of their precious clothing rations to put towards her dress. They all had to be returned as transferring rations was illegal but even so, would we do that today? I’d like to think that we would.

I also love that amongst the couple’s splendid wedding gifts there was two burnt pieces of toast sent by a pair of sisters who burned their precious bread ration as they were so excited by the news of the royal engagement being announced on the radio and promptly sent the burned pieces with their congratulations to the palace.

Anyway, I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in the Queen and in particular her youth. It’s a great read.

One thing I will say though is that I read it on Kindle (downloaded from Amazon) and was really annoyed by how badly edited it was – it felt at times as if the Kindle version had been put together before any editing had even happened as there were occasional words, sentences and even, I believe, entire passages completely missing so I had to keep rereading paragraphs to try and make sense of them. There was also some pretty dodgy grammar – I know I take liberties here but you don’t pay to read this and I do most of it deliberately. I don’t blame the author at all for any of this but feel that her publisher has let her down a bit.

However, all this aside, I’d definitely still recommend this book.

Young Elizabeth the Making of Our Queen

London Research Trip, May 2012

28 May

Christ Church, Spitalfields.

So anyway, I went on the most amazing research trip to London last Friday. The plan was pretty simple – stay in the heart of my beloved Spitalfields and take photographs and notes to help me while writing The Ripper Novel which is a time slip book incorporating both 1888 and 2012 Whitechapel. This wasn’t a hardship at all as my family come from Whitechapel and I’ve been kicking about the place off and on for longer than I can remember, although when my grandparents moved us back from Scotland they opted to live in Essex rather than go back to the East End, alas. I still regard it as my cultural, spiritual and ancestral home though so it’s always nice to go back.

I arrived at lunchtime on the Friday, ditched my stuff at my hotel on Osborn Street, which is at the end of Brick Lane and a bustling thoroughfare lined with Turkish and Indian cafes and shops and then headed out for a wander around in the simmering heat. I took photographs of interesting graffiti and visited Ripper Site Number Two – busy and faintly insalubrious Hanbury Street, where Annie Chapman’s body was found in the backyard of number 29.

Hanbury Street.

After this I had a trip to All Saints where I tried on a profusion of dresses, all of which were too big and too long for me and then went to have lunch in Spitalfields Market before strolling down Brushfield Street and then along to Middlesex Street and Goulston Street, where the infamous ‘The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing‘ graffiti and a piece of Catherine Eddowes’ apron were discovered in a doorway.

I then walked on to Mitre Square, which was Ripper Site Number Four via Ripper Site Number Five, which is that pokey service road at the side of White’s Row car park which marks the former site of the notorious and long vanished Dorset Street. Miller’s Court, where Mary Jane Kelly’s body was discovered was on the left of the street but it’s all been pulled down now.

Mitre Passage.

I couldn’t quite remember where Mitre Square was at first as I usually go at dusk and all the sunlight was a bit discombobulating but then turned a corner and there was Mitre Passage in front of me looking as dark and eerie as always. I felt a distinct chill in the air as I walked down Mitre Passage and it even seemed a bit like all sound was muted as well. Due to the movements of the police that fateful night in 1888, we can be fairly sure that the Ripper made his escape down Mitre Passage after murdering Catherine Eddowes…

I lurked in Mitre Square for a while waiting for this tour group to go away. They’re clustered in the spot where Catherine Eddowes’ body was found. As a Ripperologist, I am in no position to complain about the interest other people may have in Jack the Ripper but I’m a bit bemused by daylight Ripper tours. It’s much better to go at night! Another group came in after this one and I was a bit perturbed to hear the guide coming out with all sorts of antiquated nonsense about the case. He was also in the habit of emitting hideous shrill eldritch screams. In broad day light! What must the people in the surrounding offices think?! One day, however, I will do a tour and IT WILL BE AWESOME.

Poor old Catherine Eddowes was found on approximately this spot.

The entrance to Mitre Passage from Mitre Square. The Ripper probably made his escape this way. Or did he?

I went back to Spitalfields after this, pausing at the Hummingbird Bakery for a restorative slice of vanilla cake before wandering through the market and then back along Brick Lane. I carried on along Old Montague Street until I reached Durward Street, which is Ripper Site Number One. Back in 1888, Durward Street was known as Bucks Row and it was here on the 31st of August 1888 that Polly Nichols’ body was discovered on the pavement by the old board school, which is the tall building in the photograph.

Entrance to Durward Street aka Bucks Row.

The old board school building, which was there in 1888 and loomed over the site where poor Polly’s body was found.

After this, I went back to my hotel to get ready for the evening and felt really at home and happy as I listened to the call to prayer floating over Spitalfields while putting on my makeup. I’d arranged to meet some friends in the Princess Alice on Commercial Street and had an ace evening drinking gin and being remarkably silly. There was a LOT of gossip involving misuse of disliked names, tiaras, inappropriate wearing of bridesmaids dresses and MORE about dreadful people and I even had a proposal of marriage! However, we have a rule that What Happens At Gin And Whores Stays At Gin And Whores so my lips are sealed. After the pub I went up Brick Lane for a curry with my friends Del and Miranda, which was great fun. People always tut a bit at me when I say that I never feel at all unsafe in Whitechapel but it’s true – I walked back to my hotel alone at 2am without any qualms at all.

The next morning I packed up my stuff and then went for a walk across Whitechapel High Street to Henriques Street, which is Ripper Site Number Three. Back in 1888, Henriques Street was known as Berner Street and it was here that Elizabeth Stride’s body was discovered on the night of the 30th September – the first of what is known as The Double Event Murders. To be honest I’m not even sure that she was one of the Ripper’s victims but that’s no reason to forget all about her as I believe all these women should be remembered. I just wish they’d got as much concern and attention in life as they did after death.

Approximate spot of the entrance to the yard where Elizabeth Stride’s body was found.

Henriques Street is a miserable little road but when you recall how bustling and busy Whitechapel High Street was back in the late Victorian era, you start to get a real appreciation for how flagrant the Ripper was. This is also true of Hanbury Street and Dorset Street – both were busy and well populated. Bucks Row and Mitre Square, however, were altogether lonelier.

After leaving Henriques Street I walked towards the City, unintentionally going past Mitre Square as I went. It’s not actually that great a distance but certainly not ‘a few streets away’. However, my feet automatically took me that way as I headed to the City so if Elizabeth Stride was also murdered by the Ripper, I couldn’t dispute that his route may also have taken him past Mitre Square.

It was a real eye opener to visit all of the Ripper sites again as it gives a real feel for the areas and also the distance between them. In popular imagining, the murders all took place within a very small area but actually they were fairly widely apart. It’s possible to walk between all five with ease but they aren’t a few streets away from each other either.

After all this, I walked through the deserted City (hardly anyone lives there so virtually everything closes down at the weekend) past the Gherkin and those lovely old City churches that stand serenely in the midst of glinting blue glass office buildings and relentless modernity and on to Austin Friars.

Not the greatest outfit for a sweltering summer’s day in the City: All Saints dress and Doc Marten boots!

As regular readers of this blog will know, I am a HUGE FAN of Wolf Hall and its sequel Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel and so I couldn’t resist a trip to see the site of Austin Friars, which was the main residence of Thomas Cromwell. Nothing now remains of the huge mansion complete with gardens and tennis courts that he built there for himself and his sprawling household but I think you can still get some sense of it. Austin Friars is a small quiet gated street tucked away in the streets in between London Wall and Old Broad Street. You have to concentrate very hard to imagine even the faintest essence of Thomas Cromwell in the air but what it does underline is the fact that he was very much a City Man with a residence that even in the sixteenth century was at the very heart of the old City and at the centre of the London financial world with its guilds, aldermen and banking houses.

I was extremely moved to stand on the site of Thomas Cromwell’s home, which is now the Drapers’ Hall at the end of Throgmorton Street and even wept a little tear for him. Or at least for the Cromwell that Mantel conjured up, whom I am madly in love with. In the pub the night before, I joked about falling through my own time slip and ending up in Tudor England where I would show Thomas Cromwell my iPhone and recommend that he tries Cut The Rope. Sadly, however, the sun shone and a slight breeze rose making the trees in the small gated garden rustle their green skirts enticingly but there were no sightings of long dead men.

I carried on through the city, past the Crutched Friars (Thomas Wyatt was given the Crutched Friars church after the Dissolution and apparently pulled it down to build a tennis court) and on to the London Wall where I ate a peaceful lunch in a pretty garden on one of the high walks leading to the Museum of London. My first London job after leaving university was in Moorgate and I always smile to myself a bit when I walk past what was my office, remembering the callow goth that I once was. Oh dear.

The London Wall is dotted with ruins from a long gone age.

I paid a quick visit to the Museum of London, conscious that I had a bus and train to catch back home to Bristol and wanted to have a last drink in the sunshine at Spitalfields Market before I went. I bought presents, including fab tea towels with eighteenth century ladies on them and books about the Great Fire for the Seven Year Old. In the museum itself I was particularly taken with this dress, which was worn by a little girl in honour of the Queen’s coronation in 1953. How lovely! I’m surprised no one has produced replicas.

SUCH a pretty dress!

Anyway, that was the end of my research visit. I’ll be back again once the Olympics have gone away as I glimpsed quite a few old pubs and winding alleyways that are just crying out for exploration. There was a wedding at Christ Church, Spitalfields on Saturday morning and the sound of bells really gladdened my heart as I made my way home.

Thali Cafe – a Bristolian institution

27 May

One of the things that I love most about Bristol is its fine tradition of independent shops, restaurants and retailers. In fact the people of this fab city can get quite militant about maintaining independence on their local streets, which I think is pretty great.

Along with Pieminister, which I have visited in the past, I think that the Thali Cafe chain is one of the jewels in the Bristolian Crown of FOOD. There are four branches of the Thali Cafe in Bristol but their reach is actually much wider as, like Pieminister, they are staples on the British festival scene too so people from all over the country have sampled their thalis and aromatic sweet chai tea while sitting in a field at some point. Here in Bristol we’re lucky enough to be able to either visit one of their gorgeously bright and colourful restaurants or get a takeaway in one of their iconic tiffins.

For the uninitiated, a tiffin is an exciting metal Indian packed lunch container that the spouses of Indian workers pack with fabulous curries and rice – the metal keeping the meal warm for several hours. Customers of the Thali Cafe can buy a tiffin from them and then for about £8 get it refilled with three curries and enough rice for two. I send my husband out about once a week to the Totterdown branch with ours (which you can see at the top of this post!) to get our curry and I absolutely love it because a. it’s kind of fun, b. it’s cheaporama and c. it always makes me feel pretty healthy. Oh and d. it’s delicious.

The Thali Cafe team were kind enough last week to offer me a chance to try out their new lunchtime menu and so I very gladly trotted off on a gorgeous sunny day to their Easton branch to give it a whirl. I hadn’t been to Easton very often before but fell a bit in love as it is such a vibrant and diverse area, reminiscent of my beloved Spitalfields. It was the perfect day to laze in a beautiful hot pink Bollywood inspired restaurant and watch the world go by outside the wide windows.

To start we had poppadoms and a selection of interesting chutneys – tomato and tamarind (my favourite and seriously yummy, like a pungently spicy jam); yoghurt and ginger; mango, chilli and lime and mint raita. There was also salad and a selection of samosa, bonda and pakoras, all of which were fantastically tasty. To drink we had their own homemade lime drink (delicious!) and ginger beer (also delicious!).

After this our main courses arrived – as usual I picked a muttar paneer, which arrived with pilau rice and a large helping of salad while my husband had a Mogul chicken curry and the Three Year Old had a special fish and chips, which is described as ‘Masala fried fish with Bombay potato chips’.

My curry was delectable – creamy and not too spicy with plenty of paneer. I really love how at the Thali Cafe, salad is never just a mere garnish but an integral, delicious and important part of every meal.

We were intrigued by the Three Year Old’s Indian fish and chips, which is one of two child options on the menu, the other being a scaled down version of the usual adult thali with rice, lentil dhal and a choice of either fish, chicken or pakora. The fish and chips arrived on a traditional sectioned thali plate and comprised salad, sliced banana (which was eaten first as he is a FIEND for bananas), gorgeously spicy potato slices and what I am told was a perfect crispy but not too oily spicy battered fish.

I felt absolutely STUFFED after all this – it’s described as a ‘light lunch’ but thanks to a combination of scrumptuous, fresh tasting Indian food and all the sunshine I was starting to think longingly about going home for a really refreshing snooze on the sofa. However, we rallied a bit and ordered a kulfi to share between us. George, who looked after us, recommended the ‘choc-praline cluster’ and so we duly ordered one.

Oh my. Words cannot describe the heavenly deliciousness of this chocolate and praline kulfi, which becomingly arrived, bedecked with toasted coconut, in a glass jar. My husband, the lucky sod, doesn’t really have much of a sweet tooth but there was definite spoon clashing going on as we worked our way through the ice cream. The biggest fan of all though was, not entirely unexpectedly, the Three Year Old who sat like a plump little bird with his mouth wide open waiting to receive the sweet coconut riddled goodness and even, on occasion, swooped in to try and steal my portions. All in vain!

Anyway, we had the most superb time and will definitely be making a regular habit of visiting for lunch from now on as it was just the most lovely way to spend an afternoon. Thank you so much to George and all at the Thali Cafe for letting me come along! It was superb.

A busy few days

26 May

I’ve just had a pretty awesome couple of days in Bristol and the east end of London. I’ll be writing proper in depth posts about what I got up to but here’s a bit of a taster involving mojitos, Thomas Cromwell, Whitechapel, Jack the Ripper and delicious cake and curry!

Besides Rebecca Dean’s Wallis, I read The Secret Countess by Eva Ibbotson this week, which was a very light hearted and entertaining read. I imagined that all the characters looked like people from Downton Abbey, especially the Below Stairs characters. I finished Young Elizabeth: The Making of Our Queen by Kate Williams while in London, which is superb but yet again I got the impression that publishers put books on Kindle before they are edited as this was a bit of a mess with missing words, sentences and even at times entire passages; the odd bit of confusion (I don’t think I’ve ever seen the young Henry VII described as ‘jeunesse doré’ before and assume that actually it was meant to be Henry VIII) and so on. There were several points where I had to read a sentence several times over to work out what the hell it meant as there were split infinitive issues or the crux of the passage was seemingly completely missing. I don’t blame the author for this but am a bit insulted that the publisher thinks it’s okay to put out books in this sort of state. I’ll be doing a proper review in the next few days.

I’ve just started On Brick Lane by Rachel Lichtenstein, which is a look at the changing face of Brick Lane and the surrounding area in Spitalfields. I’m finding it fascinating so far. I stayed at a hotel on Osborn Street (which is at the end of Brick Lane) last night and listened to the call to prayer as I was getting ready to go out – I find it incredibly poignant and moving.

I’ve been reading a few more beauty blogs lately as I try to build up my make up collection again (I used to have a HUGE collection of MAC but the boys have laid waste to that) and also buy stuff for summer. My favourite new blogs are Harley Grant, who is one of the very few goth fashion type blogs that I have come across and seems to like all the same stuff as I do only it looks better on her and Cami Loves Kiwi, which I really like as she not only has wicked style but also has a fabulous writing voice.

And that’s pretty much all I have energy for right now! I’ll be posting more about the last few days and a review of the Kate Williams’ book over the next week!

Wallis – Rebecca Dean

22 May

As regular readers of this blog will perhaps recall I absolutely loved Rebecca Dean’s book The Golden Prince but was rather less keen on Palace Circle, despite really wanting to love it. I’m pleased to say though that her latest novel Wallis, which is a sort of follow up to The Golden Prince is a smasher and I pretty much gobbled it up.

Rebecca Dean was onto a winner though from the outset as Wallis, unsurprisingly as the clue is in the title, tells the story of the early life of Bessie Wallis Warfield and follows her through her really quite painfully unstable upbringing with her ‘flighty’ and impecunious mother; her subsequent abusive and really horrible first marriage to the handsome but really dreadful Win Spencer and then rather un-thrilling second one to nice but slightly dull Ernest Simpson. Now whatever people think about Wallis Simpson, and let’s face it she does tend to polarise opinion somewhat, one thing is for sure – she remains perennially fascinating and this novel brings her to life superbly.

As I’ve mentioned here before, I’m never sure what I think of Wallis but became much more sympathetic to her after reading Anne Sebba’s book That Woman, although I didn’t agree with some of the medical and psychological assessments that were made within its pages. I am very pleased therefore that Rebecca Dean’s novel also portrays a very sympathetic and likeable Wallis that I think is fairly true to life. She’s not perfect by any means but definitely not the ruthless, hard hearted socialite of popular imagining. What comes across is a courageous, fun loving, warm hearted, vibrant but also desperately insecure and rather snobbish young woman who hides her battered heart beneath a brittle veneer of chatter and bold faced bravado. I rather loved her.

The main crux of the book is an imagined friendship between Wallis and a fictional Duke’s daughter, Pamela who for some unknown reason is living in Baltimore. The girls remain best friends through childhood and adolescence before going their separate ways and it is their friendship and the betrayal that temporarily brings it to an end that is the main catalyst of everything that happens within the novel. I found this a bit disconcerting as the fascinating Pamela is a fictional character but it works really well and I’m guessing she is based on a composite of real people. If you like your historical fiction to strictly adhere to the facts then you may find Pamela and her husband highly annoying distractions. I liked them though and hope they get their own novel or that they feature in a follow up to Wallis, which I hope is forthcoming as it ended all too soon for me.

I also really liked that the fabulous Houghton sisters who were the stars of The Golden Prince featured in this book so I could catch up with them all again. I do love it when writers do this – it’s always a thrill when Heyer’s characters pop up in her other books, although I lament that her allegedly planned Lord Wrotham novel never happened.

Anyway, yes, if you are fascinated even slightly by Wallis Simpson or have a thing for the glitz and glamour of the early 19th century then I’d definitely recommend Wallis. I’ve now moved on to Kate Williams’ new biography Young Elizabeth: The Making of our Queen, which will no doubt talk about Wallis from an entirely different perspective and probably make me cross with her all over again…

Further reading:

Wallis

The Golden Prince

Palace Circle

That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor

Young Elizabeth: The Making of our Queen

The Gin Lane Gazette

21 May

Unbound is a really intriguing concept whereby writers can pitch projects to the public and amass paying supporters to fund it. This is a really great throwback to the days when wealthy subscribers would fund books, although nowadays you don’t have to be wealthy as Unbound support starts at £10 and goes up to £1,000, with the supporters getting increased amounts of benefits in return for their cash.

I’m really excited that one of the current Unbound projects is Ade Teal’s raucous, colourful and florid GIN LANE GAZETTE, about which he says: ‘Many of us think of the ill-behaved celebrity and the tabloid splash as inventions of the modern world, but the antics of Premiership footballers and C-list soap stars are as nothing when set alongside the peccadilloes and hell-raising of 18th-century celebs.

The first flowering of the great age of newspapers and caricature gave us boozy Prime Ministers and party leaders who settled their political differences with duels in Hyde Park (when they weren’t gambling, or writing essays about farting); peers of the realm who sat the unburied corpses of their cherished mistresses at their dinner tables; entertainers who rode horses standing upright in the saddle, while wearing a mask of bees; and celebrity courtesans who ate 1,000-guinea banknotes stuffed into sandwiches, simply to make a point. Before it was dashed from their lips by the Victorian party-poopers, our Georgian forebears drank deep from the cup of life.

The GIN LANE GAZETTE will be a compendium of illustrated ‘best bits’ from a fictional newspaper of the latter 1700s. It will contain some of the most sensational headlines and true stories of the period. The presses will be presided over by inky-fingered hack Mr. Nathaniel Crowquill, the editor and proprietor, whose premises are located in Hogarth’s chaotic Gin Lane, and who has devoted fifty years to sniffing out scandal and intrigue. His drunken acolyte, Mr. Jakes, supplies merciless caricatures and engravings for every page. Sports reports, obituaries, fashion news, courtesans of the month, book reviews, and advertisements for bizarre – and often alarming – goods, services and entertainments will also feature in a riotous mélange of metropolitan mayhem.‘

Sounds brilliant, doesn’t it?

I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to interview the very charming Mr Teal about his work, inspiring Georgians, tattooed buttocks, The Baboon Incident and snogging Kitty Fisher for this here blog…

1. What first sparked your interest in the 18th century?

I saw one of the many Hollywood versions of the mutiny on the Bounty story in the early 1990s, and became vaguely curious about how much the historical reality differed from the cinematic myth-making. I became hooked on the Bounty very quickly, and was increasingly frustrated by the lack of a contemporary portrait of the chief mutineer, Fletcher Christian, so I spent three years researching family resemblance in portraits of his closest relations, finding physical descriptions of the chap, and studying hairstyles and unifoms of the period. I hired an anatomically-trained portraitist to paint a likeness based on all this, and it ended up in a biography by Fletcher’s direct descendant, Glynn Christian. You’ll see it crop up in articles and documentaries now and again. This was my slightly odd route into the 1700s.

2. Are you planning any more books similar to GIN LANE in the future?

Yes. Kind of. There is talk of a collaboration, with an eminent historian of the more depraved aspects of the Georgian period, about which I can say NOTHING.

3. That sounds intriguing but I won’t pester for more information! Who is your favourite Georgian?

Charles James Fox. He is the 18th century made flesh. He drank, gambled away an absolute fortune, womanised, shared mistresses with the Prince of Wales, married a courtesan in secret for love, and fought a duel with a political opponent. Ed Miliband – take note.

4. Ah, I love Charles James Fox too. If you could actually go back to Georgian times – would you?

If it were for a limited period – six months, say – then yes. If I found myself requiring any sort of medical assistance, I think I’d be looking for the escape button next to the time-portal pretty damned quickly.

5. Kitty Fisher, Georgiana of Devonshire and Perdita Robinson – which one would you snog/marry/avoid?

Snog Kitty Fisher, because she was a good laugh, by all accounts. Marry Perdita, because she was beautiful beyond words, intelligent, bookish, and her heart was in the right place, I think. Avoid Georgiana – she’s trouble, that one. I enjoyed Foreman’s biography, but I didn’t warm to her as a character one iota. A spoilt madam.

6. Oh, Kitty Fisher! Who WOULDN’T?! Anyway, who would win in a fight between the cast of The Only Way Is Essex and the members of the Hellfire Club?

Probably the TOWIE folk. Dashwood’s boys would make a good fist of it, but they’d be let down by the Earl of Sandwich. He was a big girl’s blouse. He’s involved in a baboon incident in the Gin Lane Gazette, which is very revealing.

7. There’s a wonderfully Rowlandson like quality to your work – a kind of florid raucousness and irreverence. Has he always been an inspiration to your drawing?

My main inspiration is Gillray. He was outstanding. He invented the modern political caricature almost single-handedly, and we haven’t really moved on as cartoonists since. He was merciless and hated everybody. Someone once described him as ‘a caterpillar on the leaf of reputation’.

8. If you could go back in time, not just to the 18th century, and draw anyone at all – who would you pick and why?

Fletcher Christian (see above). I’d want to see how close we got to a true likeness. He had tattooed buttocks, incidentally. I wouldn’t be too fussed about sketching those, though, to be honest.

9. What is your absolute favourite tale of scandal, woe and posh doom from the Georgian period?

The one I always tell when I’m explaining the book is about Juliana Popjoy, mistress to Master of Ceremonies at Bath, Beau Nash, who was so distraught when he died that she lived for the rest of her days in a hollowed-out tree. Everything in the 1700s was done with commitment and panache. We always see headlines on the cover of glossies where a C-list celeb ‘Tells Of Her Pain’. However much pain they claim to be in, they don’t go and live in a tree. Juliana was known in Bath as ‘Betty Besom’, because she used to gallop about on a horse which she propelled with a many-thonged, besom-like whip.

10. Crikey. Can you imagine the Daily Mail if Jennifer Aniston had gone to live in a tree after being ditched by Brad Pitt? Lawks! Anyway, are you going to dress up for the launch party?

Yes. No. Maybe. We might make it ‘fancy dress optional’. I’m hoping two lady Twitter chums, starting a 1700s-themed business, are going to turn up in all their Georgian finery. Watch this space.

Thanks so much Ade for your entertaining answers! I honestly CANNOT WAIT to find out what happened with the Earl of Sandwich and the baboon.

You can find out more about the GIN LANE project and also lend your support here. It starts from £10, which will get your name in the back of the book, access to the virtual ‘author’s shed’ and an e-book edition of the completed work. A £20 pledge will get you all this and a hardcover copy and so on. I’m SERIOUSLY MIFFED that I can’t afford the £250 pledge, which entails a GEORGIAN PUB CRAWL, tickets to the launch party where Ade Teal may or may not be dressed up in Georgian finery and a caricature of myself as a Georgian aristocrat. A GEORGIAN PUB CRAWL. Wow.

Thanks again to Ade and GOOD LUCK with the book!

I’m forever blowing bubbles…

19 May

I didn’t do very well at sticking to Book Review Sunday so instead I am introducing Weekly Roundup At Some Point Over The Weekend or something. I’ll have to think of a more snappy title by the end of this post, won’t I?

Anyway, I used to really enjoy writing about the various things that I’d got up to during the week and lots of you seemed to like reading about it for whatever reason so I am BRINGING IT BACK. I know, I’m so good to you.

Anyway, the lovely photo montage above shows you some of what I’ve been up to this week besides seeing the family team West Ham getting back into the Premier League. I’m ECSTATIC about this and am determined to get to Upton Park for a match next season. I mean it! My family have been Hammers fans since way back when – in fact, when my great grandmother died, the team sent a wreath to her funeral.

Anyway, what are all those pictures, I hear you cry. Well, I’ll tell you now from the top left to bottom right.

1. My spanky new ‘peacock glitter’ star hairband from Janine Basil. I’m in love with it and can’t wait to wear it to the pub in Whitechapel with my friends next weekend!

2. I couldn’t resist this acrylic ‘GOTH’ necklace. I know that I keep saying that I’m not a goth but as all members of Goth Club know, the first rule of Goth Club is ‘DENIAL’. We don’t like to talk about the second rule…

3. My current reading – my old copy of The Winter Queen by Carola Oman. This is essential reading for all fans of the Palatine family.

4. My hair at the moment. It needs re-doing.

5. My new Doctor Martens Darcie boots. I haven’t bought myself a pair of Docs since my teens when I used to get them for a tenner a pair from a shop in Colchester so this was a bit exciting! I’m in LOVE.

6. The Seven Year Old at Krispy Kreme. He looks pretty happy!

7. My new Irregular Choice shoes. How pretty?!

8. I am struggling with a bit of an addiction to Illamasqua make up at the moment. This week’s booty was bright pinky red lipsticks in Salacious and Drench as well as an Android pigment. I also succumbed to NARS Strada eyeshadow and Funny Face lipstick.

9. Not so saucy Jack. I finally transformed our spare room into my office and this picture takes pride of place along with a map of Whitechapel in 1890s and a LOT of books and pretty whimsy.

10. More pictures from my office – a print of Marie Antoinette and a photograph of me taken in Whitby many years ago. Yes, that’s me. Look how long my hair was!

11. My beloved Thali Cafe tiffin! My grandfather bought me this for my last birthday and it’s one of my most prized possessions – basically I send my husband out to the local Thali Cafe branch with this and they fill it up with different curries and enough rice for two for about £8. I think it’s ace and pity anyone who doesn’t have one.

12. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows came out this week. Hurray! My husband bought me the blu-ray as he knows I love watching film commentaries. I used to feel embarrassed about that but lots of people do, don’t they?

I’ve spent the week writing like a demon, which is fun for no one as it makes me grumpy. I’m on an extended and possibly permanent sabbatical from my day job while I finish this book and it’s taking some getting used to.

I’ve been reading a fair amount too – as well as Bring up the Bodies, I also read Dracula in Love by Karen Essex last week, which was really good and really spun the whole Dracula story around on its head leaving the reader initially uncertain about who the villains and heroes of the piece actually are. It’s very goth and dark and sensual although I think I did it a mild disservice by reading it when the weather was sunny – it’s really a book to be savoured on rainy windswept autumn and winter nights.

I also completely adored this guest post on the awesome Bad Reputation blog, where the writer decided which five women from history she would rescue and bring to the modern day if she had a time machine to whisk them away in. I loved this idea SO MUCH.

You should all check Bad Rep out anyway to be honest. It’s funny as I have been secretly reading and admiring it for ages and ages but dared not say anything as the editor used to go out with one of my ex boyfriends and I was under the impression that she hated my guts. However! This turned out to be a pack of nonsense and we are BLOCK CAPITAL, THOMAS CROMWELL AND GLITTER LOVING BUDDIES now and EVERYTHING. Oh yes.

I think that it’s all I have to say about this week to be honest so I will leave you with what appears to be the week’s most played song on my iTunes account and scamper off to weep over this chapter.

I know I’ve posted Before I’m Dead by Kidney Thieves before but I love it so you’ll have to put up with it again. I also love this peculiar fan made video. It works quite well, doesn’t it? There’s not enough Stuart Townsend as Lestat though for my taste. Is there EVER though?

I didn’t manage to think of a good title so I’m just going to go with my current ear worm. COME ON YOU HAMMERS.

RIP Anne Boleyn

19 May

Poor old Anne Boleyn. She lost the game and on this day, four hundred and seventy six years ago, she paid the price.

Here’s a picture of me looking suitably mournful beside the plaque commemorating what they used to think was the site of the scaffold on Tower Green. I’m the one with red hair and clashing pink frock. My cousin is sitting beside me pretending to cry because she is a. pathetic, b. an inveterate drama queen even at a young age and c. highly competitive. She didn’t actually know who Anne Boleyn was and probably still doesn’t. I know, right? Get me, being all snarky at this time in the morning.

I have a photograph somewhere of me wearing the rather natty Anne Boleyn costume that my grandmother made for me when I was about eight years old. I would insist upon wearing it to school every day for a very long time. It’s not really surprising that I got terribly bullied is it…

The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn: The Most Happy

Don’t be like my cousin – if you’re sitting there thinking ‘I’d really like to know more about Anne Boleyn’ then I’d wholeheartedly recommend this book as it is simply the best book about Anne Boleyn ever written.

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