Some reviews come with spoiler alerts, this one comes with a warning: reading M.J. Carter’s wonderful The Devil’s Feast will leave you both incredibly hungry and far too scared to eat. It may be the best diet book I have ever read. The Devil’s Feast is the third outing for Victorian investigative duo Captain William […]
Victorian Slum: Episode One
In the jungle that is broadcast television different genres often exhibit quite different relationships with the truth. Top of the truthfulness table must be ‘reality shows’, Big Brother and its successors. BB surveilled its contestants 24/7 and it really did show people doing what they purported to be doing. No lies there, all falsity was […]
Winter is Coming by Carolyne Larrington
Writing in the Guardian newspaper in December, 2015 Carolyne Larrington, author of Winter is Coming, The Medieval World of Game of Thrones says: “Both the show and the book sequence on which it’s based, George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, reflect very closely the cultures, beliefs and practices of (the Medieval) era. […]
Poldark: BBC’s Crowd-Pleaser is Back with a Bang
We last saw Ross Poldark (Aiden Turner) atop a windswept cliff, arrested for looting a wrecked ship, inciting a riot and murdering his rival’s cousin. Season two opens without missing a beat (there’s a story so far preview available on BBC iPlayer if you want to jog your memory) as Ross is dragged away from […]
The Last Royal Rebel by Anna Keay
During the horrific, botched execution of James, Duke of Monmouth, in 1685, the crowd remained silent and ‘many cried’, until, incensed by the ‘barbarous usage’ of the duke, they surged forward and would have torn the executioner to pieces had soldiers not prevented it. Yet the label on Monmouth’s portrait in the National Gallery reads: […]
Fire! Fire!
On the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire, Imogen Robertson visits the Museum of London’s dedicated exhibition. London is thick with the memory of flames this month. As you might have noticed given the flurry of events, programmes, talks and books currently available, it’s 350 years since the Great Fire tore through the city destroying […]
Victoria: ITV’s New Flagship Drama
It is every teenager’s dream. At the age of 18 you break free of the Muggles who have been controlling your life since childhood and at the same time you are granted a miraculous power, which means that everybody has to do what you say. Even Harry Potter didn’t manage the last part but in […]
Accession by Livi Michael
Accession by Livi Michael is the third and final instalment of her Wars of the Roses trilogy which opens in 1444 with the novel Succession. The trilogy centres itself around Margaret Beaufort and Margaret of Anjou and their competing ambitions for their sons and the English throne. Novel three, as one would expect from this […]