Category Archives: Popular posts
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
Continue ReadingIn which I catch a robber, and get tourists to sit on him
You may have heard that my BBC history colleague Dan Snow sits on his own robbers. I prefer to delegate it to other people. I’ve been in Oxford this last weekend, which prompts me to recount one of my favourite anecdotes. It’s very well worn, and I hope it’s not become too exaggerated through repetition.
Continue ReadingIn which I reveal why I showed famous comedians my pants
In my last post, I planted what Sarah (our excellent editor at Historic Royal Palaces) calls a ‘witch’s tree’. Here’s an example of a ‘witch’s tree’: ‘I wanted a cup of tea, but we’d run out of milk. So I got my bag, and went out of the house. As I was walking down the
Continue ReadingOn being 2.5% famous
These days, when I meet an old friend I haven’t seen in a while, he or she always: a. congratulates me on my recent marriage (yes, very quietly, last November) and then b. asks me: ‘what’s it like to be recognized’? While hoping not to sound grandiose, I calculate that I’ve become 2.5% famous. (This
Continue ReadingHarlots, Housewives and Heroines – what’s it all about?
This article in today’s Telegraph will tell you what my new series is all about… ‘Fame never yet spoke well of woman’ were the rueful words put into the mouth of the king’s mistress, Nell Gwyn, by a seventeenth-century hack. I think it’s time to redress the balance. My new BBC4 series ‘Harlots, Housewives and Heroines’ is
Continue ReadingI am photographed as Marie Antoinette
It’s a big deal being photographed by Julia Fullerton-Batten, as I was recently for the New Yorker. (‘For the New Yorker’. Note how coolly I toss that out? Believe me, my nonchalance is feigned.) The first indication that something extraordinary was coming up was my being asked if I had a preferred make-up artist and
Continue ReadingI eat George III’s dinner
Marc and Robert from Historia, the food historians who work at Hampton Court, were cooking dishes from a 1789 menu for George III for Lauren Collins of the New Yorker. Who could resist coming along for a taste? Certain not me and my fellow curator Susanne. Selecting just the highlights from the great list of
Continue ReadingI’m hanging up my red Regency dress…
…having finally finished filming for a new TV series about the naughty Prince Regent and his age. Back in January, when we started, I loved my red dress, a design which fortuitously turned out to be called ‘The Beau’ (as in Brummell). By July I was sick of the sight of it. (Before you ask
Continue ReadingMy first job as a curator
After my last post about getting a first job in museums or historic houses, my thoughts have been wandering back to my own experience… Here’s a magazine article I wrote at the time about my own early years of work (including, in the bottom left, there a very old photo!) Please excuse the jejeune enthusiasm,
Continue ReadingHow to get a job as a curator
I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that most days, someone, somewhere sends me an email asking how to get a job as a curator. So here are my suggestions for what to do … (NB these are my personal views, not necessarily those of Historic Royal Palaces!) 1. Do a relevant undergraduate degree –
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