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
Tag Archives: History
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
When 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
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
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, a popular weekly magazine published in London between 1822 and 1847, ran the following short piece in its November 26, 1825 issue which got me giggling–I hope it will do the same to … Continue reading
When Lord George Cavendish, younger brother of the 5th Duke of Devonshire (or should I say brother-in-law of the famous Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire?) inherited one of the family homes in London, Burlington House, he didn’t expect to be plagued … Continue reading
“Did GG’s stuff include a scrapbook?” “There’s one of those late Victorian scrapbooks, with poems and pasted pictures. Is that what you mean?” In my debut novel for Book View Café, The Wizardry of Jewish Women, a scrapbook appears. “This … Continue reading