Last year I traced my family tree back to the early eighteenth century and discovered that along the one line was a family of blacksmiths operating within a five mile radius in rural Lincolnshire for at least two hundred years. I published part of the story in Your Family History last March but there wasn't room in the piece for one of my favourite parts of the story.
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On the 26th November 2017 I was a guest again on Llewela Bailey’s BBCWM breakfast show to talk about the tradition of Stir Up Sunday – the last Sunday before advent which is when we are meant to make our Christmas Puddings. You can listen again via this link for the next week or so […]
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Yesterday I had the pleasure of seeing the innovative new play, Letters to Emma by playwright Dr Carolyn Scott Jeffs at the Lichfield Garrick theatre. The play features the ‘Swan of Lichfield’, poet and biographer Anna Seward (1742-1809), an eighteenth-century author who was friends with Samuel Johnson, Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles), and James Boswell. […]
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Thanks to everyone who came to our launch at Loughborough University, London, last week, braving the English summer (brrr!) to do so. A good time was had by all, and obviously there was cake – a bespoke earthworms and urine sample cake, no less. Below are a couple of pics from our evening. In […]
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The town of Tamworth in the Midlands used to have a number of medieval and Tudor buildings which were demolished in the 1960s to make way for a shopping centre and other modern developments. Some older buildings had gone long before the 60s however. The information board outside St Editha’s church describes how one of the […]
Read moreMaladies and Medicine is now available Published on the 4th July Available from the publisher Pen & Sword Amazon.co.uk Widgets Save the Date! We are delighted to announce that the launch of Maladies and Medicine: Exploring Health and Healing, 1540-1740 will take place at Loughborough University London (Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park) on 9 August 2017 […]
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On Wednesday I attended the Association for Medical Humanities conference at the splendid Keele Hall, at Keele University. My presentation was focussed on some of the woodcut and copperplate images of the gravid womb which appeared in English language medical texts throughout the early modern period, and I thought I’d share some of these wonderful […]
Read moreI was delighted to be asked back to North Manchester FM to chat to Hannah Kate presents Hannah’s Bookshelf every Saturday from 2-4 pm. In the first hour Jennifer Evans and Hannah had a discussion about her work and Jennifer chose her Apocalypse books (since I had chosen mine last time). In the second hour […]
Read moreIn 1655, Nicholas Culpeper’s The English Physitian was reissued. Culpeper died the year before, and this reissue was of a book first published at the end of 1652, in which Culpeper signed the address to his reader ‘Nich. Culpeper. Spittle-fields next door to the Red Lyon. Novemb. 1652’. In the days before house numbers properties were often […]
Read moreIn addition to my books academic or otherwise, I like to contribute articles to history periodicals. I have been writing for Discover Your Ancestors since 2013. Go to their website to read more (discoveryourancestors.co.uk). This is an annual publication, and I always look forward to seeing my pieces come out in this magazine (or bookazine […]
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