An Autumnal Return
In this newsletter
Hello
Latest blog post
The Little Bookshop
History tid-bits
Hello
Hello to all you lovely subscribers, and apologies for the delay between newsletters. The end of summer ended up being very busy with conferences, holidays and sickness, and before I knew it we are already in the middle of October. The cold temperatures have suddenly hit the UK, so I’m getting ready for Autumnal evenings wrapped up warm and writing history!
Latest Blog Post
I did manage to squeeze in a new blog post in September, about one of my favourite items: the bees of Childeric I. I’ve posted about the bees before on my blog’s social media, and so I thought it was a great time to do a proper in-depth dive into the fascinating history of these little objects. Dating from the 5th century, they have endless tales to tell - something you wouldn’t expect from such small items. If you haven’t read it, make sure you don’t miss out…
The Little Bookshop
A few days ago I had the pleasure of visiting the Little Bookshop in Chapel Allerton, Leeds, for a special book event. Normally my in-person events have been historical presentations, where I walk the audience through the events and people in my books, but this was a cosy, informal Q&A about my latest book, The Queen and the Mistress, as well as my research and writing process and what it’s like to be a historical non-fiction author. It was such a great event, and so interesting to be interviewed by someone who had carefully read my book as she was very good at picking out specific things I had talked about! If you’re ever in that region of England, I can highly recommend the lovely shop.
History Tid-Bits
A couple of fun bits of medieval history today for our tid-bits section. First up is a new piece I saw yesterday of a lovely medieval ring which has been found in Essex. The ring dates to the period of my first book - the 15th century - and is described as a typical example of medieval courtly love culture. Made from gold, it is inscribed in French with the words "Je desir vous Ceruir" meaning "I desire to serve you". You can read about the find on the BBC.
The second news item comes from last month. If you’ve ever done medieval history of England, you will almost certainly have heard of the Venerable Bede, an English monk, author and scholar who lived across the 600-700s. Considered one of the most influential thinkers of the post-Roman world, a historian now thinks they have identified some of his handwriting within a Bible in a Florentine archive. If so, this is a very exciting discovery for early medieval historians - see her arguments for herself in this article from the Guardian.
As always, thank you for reading, and until next time.
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