From My Blog
A wild week for Peter the Wild Boy
This week Peter the Wild Boy was on the radio as part of the Making History programme on Radio 4, and he also popped up in our new video on the Historic Royal Palaces Youtube channel. He was written about in The Guardian, and in the Daily Mail as well. The excitement was all caused
My day as a dandy
No, I’m not doing a Fred Astaire number, I’m all dandied up in preparation for a lesson in cravat-tying from the dandy historian Ian Kelly. Why did the high collar and the tight cravat become so popular in the Regency? Partly to hide the double chins of the Prince Regent, and partly as a result
Regency Ladies
I have been spending time with a couple of Regency ladies over the last few days. Yesterday I saw Lady Caroline Lamb’s scrapbook (left) in the John Murray archive in Edinburgh, which I wanted to look at to understand her views on the waltz. She loved waltzing, and made lots of humorous drawings of waltzing
A lot of make-up at Daybreak
Here’s me (and a truck-load of make-up) at the Daybreak studio this morning on ITV1 at an ungodly hour this morning, talking about ‘The King’s Speech’ as the Oscars parties were still going strong. As I said, if you get cross that films are historically inaccurate, get a life! They’re works of fiction. And who
Checking the index for my new book
Checking the index for my new book, I laughed when I came across this entry on the subject of footmen! Don’t you adore the casual way ‘sodomised’ pops up? footmen: distances covered daily, p.262; duties, p.103, p.199, pp.210–11, p.251, p.318; hierarchy of, p.208; livery, p.207, p.211; powdered hair, p.142; replaced, p.247; serving meals, p.251, p.304;
George IV’s coronation robe
Today we looked at George IV’s coronation robe, freshly conserved and on its way to Brighton for exhibition. It’s not in great condition, because for many years it was displayed on a mannequin at Madame Tussaud’s.
A week of King James Bible mania kicks off on Radio 4
A week of King James Bible mania kicks off on Radio 4. Listen to the programme recorded at Hampton Court Palace about the commissioning of the new bible translation here. It was recorded all in one long evening, an occasion which had something of the same flavour as the Hampton Court Conference of 1604 itself
The concept of the ‘Christmas Party Dress’
The concept of the ‘Christmas Party Dress’ is unknown at Hampton Court Palace. We had a lovely party in the Great Kitchen this evening, but despite the huge fire everyone had to wear coats and extra jumpers.
In Brussels for the Association of the Royal Residences of Europe
In Brussels for the Association of the Royal Residences of Europe. There’s been some debate about whether the Doge’s Palace, Venice, would be eligible to join or not. The feeling was that they’d be bit too democratic. We were also looking at an eighteenth century chamberlain’s key to the palace where we were meeting in
Excellent taste is demonstrated
Excellent taste is demonstrated over at The Telegraph by their picking my ‘Courtiers’ as one of their ‘Books of the Year’. They say it ‘reveals the complexity, anxiety and pathos behind the façade of those caught up in the golden circle of the Court’. (Hear, hear.)
