Dr Anne Thick spoke to Caroline K. Mackenzie about her life-changing experience as a teenager working on the original excavations of Lullingstone Roman Villa, the kindness of the custodians of the site, and the ‘golden days’ of being part of discovering such an important archaeological and historical site. It led to lifelong friendships, a rewarding career and a legacy which we can all enjoy today. How old were you when you were involved in the dig at Lullingstone? I was 14 and 15 as it was in 1959 and 1960. I was born in 1944 and am 78 now. I love the photo of you on the dig! Thank you. Th ..read more

  Most of us in this group, since it started in 2011, have been writers of historical fiction. We’ve had “straight” historians, like John Guy, as guests and some of our number, like Clare Mulley have written non-fiction, Some people do both – and it can be quite confusing. Take Alison Weir, for example. She, who has also been a guest on The History Girls blog, is a prolific writer on historical subjects such as the Wars of the Roses, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry Vlll and the Boleyn sisters. But she also writes novels about some of the same characters, notably her Six Tudor Queens seque ..read more

'Scheherazade and Shahryar' Artist: Marie-Elenor Godefroid (1778-1849) When I was a little girl, I was enchanted by the idea of someone reclining on silken cushions on a hot sultry evening, sipping iced sherbet. I think image must have come from Scheherazade and the 'The Tales of the Thousand and One Nights'. But it was only as an adult, I wondered how Scheherazade would have got ice to put in her fruit cocktails on those hot Arabian nights, centuries before fridge-freezer was invented. A bizarre legend says the 16th century Mughal emperor Babur, who was very fond of iced sherbet, us ..read more

Victor Watson (see photo at the end of this piece)  was for many years  an academic at Homerton College, Cambridge and an expert on children's books. He edited The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English (CUP 2001). He was Chairman of Seven Stories during its development and eventual opening in 2005 as the National Centre for Children's Books. He has written novels for children and a novel for adults called Time After Time. I ought to say that he and his wife Judy are friends of mine and  I have visited their house  and admired their beautiful garden ..read more

I’ve spent the last few months in the 1930s. It’s a grim place in many ways, with the rise of the political far right; poverty and deprivation, and the displacement of millions as people are forced from their homes by political or economic cruelty. Part of the grimness is not how alien these issues are to us today, but how depressingly familiar.  the reason for my immersion in all things 1930s But the books I have been writing and editing, though firmly grounded in political reality, have been essentially upbeat in their tone. Yes, there’s fascism, but also bias-cut frocks a ..read more

Elders playing a two-person organistrum Santiago de Compostela, Spain 12th century (wiki commons) What has more than 90 moving parts, was once the instrument of choice in churches, in its earliest version needed two people to play* and has been making music for over 1000 years? It's the hurdy-gurdy. Aka the wheel fiddle, symphonia, organistrum, vielle a roue, zanfona. Its music is made by a rosined wooden wheel turned by a crank moving against melody strings, plus drone strings and a buzzing bridge or 'dog'**. Illustration of two symphonia from the Canticles of Holy Mary during the r ..read more

What happens when you ask AI to write a story? There's a lot of chat about ChatGPT at the moment, and a good deal of panic among writers A-eyeing up the possbility of being replaced in their publishers' affections (oxymoron alert!) by something that writes totally for free rather than nearly for free. So I imagined I was a commissioning editor, or perhaps a creative writing teacher, and set ChatGPT a little asssignment. And then, in true editorial/tutorial fashion, critiqued its attempt. (Incidentally, this blog also shows why you don't want me to critique your story.) Don't worry if you can ..read more

What happens when you set an AI a writing task?     'Story' produced by AI; don't worry if you can't read it, the text is all repeated below   There's a lot of chat about ChatGPT at the moment, and a good deal of panic among writers A-eyeing up the possbility of being replaced in their publishers' affections (oxymoron alert!) by something that writes totally for free rather than nearly for free. So I imagined I was a commissioning editor, or perhaps a creative writing teacher, and set ChatGPT a little asssignment. And then, in true editorial/tutorial fashion, critiqued ..read more

Thankfully the ship rests in the shallows. He has not used this apparatus before and will not venture any deeper than he must. Twenty feet below the surface. No danger there, he tells himself. And he knows exactly where to look. Under careful instruction the object he seeks was safely hidden within the starboard bow, away from the other shipments tightly packed in the hold, but the ship broke apart in the storm; he hopes his luck stays true, that the crate has not strayed too far along the seabed, that no one else has managed to retrieve it ... In the winter of 1798, the Royal Navy ..read more

Seventy-eight years ago, in a bitter Polish January, an appalling atrocity of the second world war began, but it is not widely known about. Even in this age of excessive information, some historical events become distorted in the public imagination, and others are totally forgotten within the space of one generation. Watch tower at Lamsdorf, Stalag 344. Many people wrote to me after the publication of my first novel The Prisoner's Wife to say, 'I didn't know that happened,' about two different aspects of the book. Some were referring to the use of British PoWs as unpaid labour by ..read more