Familiar things, like household accounts, can be the only traces that can lead us to the everyday lives of women in previous centuries. For author Stacey Halls, domestic records painted a detailed picture of 17th century life. In 1660, a pregnant woman named Alice Thornton had a dream in which the white sheet she slept […]
The Women of the Knights Templar
Simon Turney explores the surprising history of the female Knights Templar. The Knights Templar are without a doubt one of the most well-known groups of the medieval world – studied endlessly, depicted in numerous novels and movies as both good guys and bad, their bravery and piety vaunted, their secretive nature explored, their morals questioned, their […]
The Remarkable Women of WW2
Our guest this month, Clare Harvey, on the remarkable women who inspired her novels. It began, as many of the best things do, with a flippant comment. My husband was polishing his medals ready for the 2011 Remembrance Sunday parade when I remarked that I bet he had more gongs than his dad, these days […]
Animating Pepys’ Women
Four of my novels have been set in the seventeenth century, and for all of them I have used Pepys’ Diary as an integral part of my research process. In the process, I became fascinated by the women who appear as vague figures in the background, between the lines, always overshadowed by Pepys’ ebullient presence. […]