From My Blog
How I’ve been getting on, on my high horse
One night, not too long ago, I was walking home from work when I got a phone call. It was the Daily Mail. ‘We have a question for you,’ the voice said. ‘Our readers really want a historian’s professional view, if you’d be so kind.’ ‘Okay,’ I said cautiously, ‘What is it?’ ‘Good!’ my interlocutor
Murderous knick-knacks and artefacts: a re-post
Our BBC Four series on the history of murder is being re-shown on BBC Four at the moment (episode one is on Iplayer now, episode 2 will be shown next Saturday at 8pm) so I thought I would re-post this article from BBC History Magazine. You can also hear me talking about it on the
A Girl’s Guide to Greatness, or How Not to Write an Obituary
Last summer, as I was reading through the 1,000 or so pages of The Times Great Women’s Lives: A Celebration in Obituaries in preparation for writing its foreword, I was struck by how ridiculous and retrograde it was for so many of the obituaries to concentrate on the women’s hair, cooking skills and home life.
Why I love the Tudors (with a guest appearance by Jean Plaidy)
As everyone STILL seems to be Wolf-Hall-mad, another article from the paper this week, about why I love the Tudors… My most treasured possessions include a battered little paperback, barely held together with sellotape: TheYoung Elizabeth, by Jean Plaidy. Published in 1961, with a cover showing a picture of Hampton Court Palace, it tells the story of the childhood of the future Tudor queen. She’s
A little article on the history of the codpiece…
… I wrote for a newspaper this week. Hope you enjoy! ‘There is no hidden codpiece memo.’ So says Colin Callendar, executive producer of the upcoming BBC Two drama series Wolf Hall, denying claims that the size of his stars’ codpieces were reduced beyond the point of historical accuracy to avoid offending or baffling an American audience. Actor Damian Lewis did
Most popular posts, and best comments, of the year 2014
Hello, I hope you enjoyed the Tudor shenanigans on BBC Two last night, if you watched them! I’m a bit late with this, aren’t I, as we’re already well into 2015? But better late than never… These were the most popular posts of the year on my blog! Click on them to re-read them! In fourth
A visit to the set of Wolf Hall, and other Tudor drama (including our OWN).
Well, I have been spreading myself about all over the papers today in preparation for the Tudor season about to begin on the BBC. For the Mail, I have written about a visit to the set of the new BBC drama version of Wolf Hall (in which Damian Lewis showed me his codpiece) (ok, calm
I’m going to be busy on Xmas Day
Dear Friends, the curators’ office Hampton Court this week has felt a bit like a sinking ship as one by one people have come into my room to say, ‘Well, I’m off now for the holidays. See you next year!’ I’m clinging on to the bitter end myself, having already had my holiday skiing a
A re-post, on royal bedrooms of the past…
In honour of ‘Tales from the Royal Bedchamber’ being shown on PBS in America at the moment (you can also watch it through their website here) I’m re-posting an article from a couple of years ago, about royal beds… Rife through any archive of note and, should it contain ambassadors’ letters and courtiers’ memoirs, you’ll often
How to make a Tudor wafer
Well, now for something completely different. Although it’s being shown on the telly at the moment, we actually finished all our work on that dancing series back in the summer, and my mind has moved onto other things. I’ve been busy recently with a new Tudor project. This week I had the pleasure of watching
