A few days ago, I opened a box and one of my past lives fell out. Specifically, I found the papers related to my comprehensive exams, way back in the second year of my Ph.D. Without question, the seven months I spent studying for the comps was the most stressful period of my life. And long after it was over, some of those papers held an eerie, residual power over me. They were like voodoo dolls of … [Read more...]
Llandudno
Hello, friends! I am not presently in North Wales, but our holiday was too lovely not to share with you. This week's photos are from the Victorian seaside town of Llandudno. We took an Edwardian tram car up the very steep side of a cliff called the Great Orme (Pen y Gogarth, in Welsh). Here's the view from the midpoint: And from the top of the Great Orme: And then we descended to … [Read more...]
A History of Violence
A couple of months ago at the launch party for Rivals in the City, I read aloud a scene that takes place in front of Newgate Prison. The year is 1860. A wooden scaffold has been built outside the prison gates, as it was before each public execution. The hangman, William Calcraft, is testing the gallows and trapdoor to ensure that they work. And the crowd is eagerly, boisterously, anticipating the … [Read more...]
We are still the Victorians
Hello, friends. Today is Earth Day - a useful time to reflect upon what our environment is like, what might happen to our world in the future, and how things used to be. As you know, I think we're a lot more like the Victorians than we'd prefer to believe. It's so comforting to view them as boring, prudish, ignorant dinosaurs. It's so flattering to congratulate ourselves upon how much we've … [Read more...]
The Victorian tattoo
Hello, friends. Today is April Fool's Day and I feel a certain amount of not-so-subtle cultural pressure to write a gag post. I believe I ought to document a Shocking Truth about the Victorians, or similar, which I later reveal as - surprise! - a prank. Joke's on you, sssssuckers. However, I've always felt a strange resentment of April Fool's jokes and, for that matter, practical jokes in … [Read more...]
Author Math
One of the things I find consistently surprising in historical fiction is how very long it takes to get from one place to another. The Agency novels are set in London between 1858 and 1860. They’re too urban to make use of the railways that criss-crossed England and a shade too early for the first intra-city underground trains (the steam-powered Metropolitan Railway opened in 1863). Most of the … [Read more...]