I simply cannot resist a grim Victorian prison. And fortunately I was able to score tickets to tour Kilmainham Gaol Museum in Dublin. This grim stone pile was built in 1796 and extensively refurbished to the latest fashions in Victorian … Continue reading
I just got back from a business trip to Washington DC, making use of the usual travel options of planes, trains and automobiles. During this trip—one of many occuring annually in May—I did not avail myself of the subway train, … Continue reading
This conversation originally appeared earlier this year on the History Girls, a most informative blog run by writers of historical fiction. Talking history in a writer’s fiction… with the writer Brenda Clough, by Gillian Polack Because so many readers enjoyed … Continue reading
This is the story of a river in Seattle. This, like many, or perhaps all, of American rivers is a working river. From its source on the slopes of Mt Rainier (to the Salishan tribe: Talol or Tahoma) to the … Continue reading
My husband and I begin conversations, as we often do, that travel down many highways, side roads and dirt paths. Last night we found ourselves in the land of place names. … Continue reading
Time travel with a twist. A group of scientists travel to 14th century France… and the novel is written by a Medievalist.
Continue readingWhen Wilkie Collins—close friend of Charles Dickens—published his fifth book, The Woman in White, (found here in a collection of all his work, for a buck ) in spite of outrage on the part of critics, it was a runaway … Continue reading
Ghosts trail after us. They are our fears and the shape of our hates. We bring them into our lives and into our homes.
Some years our fears and hates are so strong our ghosts turn tangible and fracture our landscape.
Poltergeists and the spirits of drowned girls; malicious presences and portents; cat vampires and roaming bushrangers.
These ghosts haunt Canberra.
Continue readingFor a while some twenty years ago, there was this meme going around that maintained you might not be as boring as you think you are. I’d like to believe that, but I don’t. About as far as I can … Continue reading
Not too long ago I posted about the engraving of a wonderful reading chair that appeared in the early 19th century magazine, Ackermann’s Repository, but this print may just win the prize…not only for itself, but for what the editors … Continue reading
