Georgian Comfort Food, Medieval Kings and Anglo-Saxon Treasure
I saw a cartoon doing the rounds on social media recently, where a group of people are hiding behind a wall and nervously jabbing the door to 2022 open with the end of a broom. Kind of feels a bit like that, doesn’t it? I can’t help thinking about all the archaeological and historical discoveries that will be unearthed this year though - and all the new books to be released. I wonder what new history we’ll find out this year?
Writing
December was a fairly quiet month for writing but I was excited to have a (slightly adapted) recipe for Georgian Bread Pudding in the winter edition of The Historians Magazine. For me, this recipe evokes slick, rain-soaked cobbled streets, flickering candles behind frosted-up window panes and the scent of warm spices wafting out into the misty street.
Over on the blog I rounded up 12 Tudor recipes that would be perfect for a Christmas or New Year Feast and also recreated a plate of good, old-fashioned Tudor strawberries and cream. Did you know that, legend has it, it was Cardinal Wolsey who first served strawberries and cream together at Hampton Court sometime around the 1520s?
Talking of historical cooking, I’m sometimes told off for using modern ingredients when I make these historical-inspired dishes. Here’s why I think, for the cooking that I’m doing anyway, that that’s ok .
I delved into the history of Reading’s Market Place, a place I normally go to eat insanely tasty street food on a Wednesday or Friday lunchtime but also a site that has a huge amount of exciting history. I also wrote up a post about staying overnight at Warwick Castle a couple of years ago.
I love a good historical lecture and this one was really eye-opening for me: a look at the skeleton of Richard III and what it tells us about how he died. History meets archaeology meets CSI. Brilliant. Watch it online, free, on the Gresham College website.
If there’s something you’d like to see me write about, then feel free to send me an email.
Reading
I’m about half way through Dan Jones’ The Plantagenets which I am totally loving. I’m taking my time with it, because I’ve always struggled with Medieval royal history and the jumble of Henrys, Edwards and Richards. This book has been great at helping me understand how they all fit together and their impacts on one another, too. I’m on Henry III and Simon de Montfort at the moment…
I finished the audiobook of How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain by Ruth Goodman, which I would wholeheartedly recommend if you’re into that era, and especially if you’re into social history. It covers expected social rules - of which there were quite a lot! - and instances of how ignoring them (accidentally or deliberately) could get you into trouble.
I’ve been eyeing up Ben Hopkins’ Cathedral for when I finish The Plantagenets, which is a novel based in Germany, covering the building of a cathedral over the course of different centuries.
Read something great and want to tell me about it? Email me here.
The weather got pretty cold and wet so I haven’t been out sketching much in person (it’s tricky scribbling in a sketchbook, mixing watercolour paints and trying to hold an umbrella upright with your non-drawing arm in howling wind and rain). I did paint the church of St James the Less in Pangbourne though, and added it to my journal at home, along with the inside of St Luke’s Church in Reading after my daughter’s violin group held a concert there at the end of the year. There was also a sketch of the Nutcracker Christmas Shop in Stratford Upon Avon and Sarah Fletcher on Instagram kindly allowed me to draw her photo of the stunning fifteenth century Moot Hall in Bedfordshire.
I’m taking a break this week but from next week, I’m open again for commissions - send me an email if you’d like to book one.
If you’d like to keep updated on my sketches or have a look to see what I do you can find them all here on my Instagram.
Roman fort discovered in Netherlands may have played a role in the invasion of Britain
Bishop’s name found inscribed on Anglo-Saxon crystal and gold jar
Incredible facial reconstruction of a man that lived in Scotland 1,600 years ago and what he can tell us about community and travel in 400-500AD.
5 Victorian detective stories to read.
Thanks for reading! See you in February.
Keep in touch in the meantime on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.