Reading, Tudors, Bad Behaviour and An Actual Exhibition!
It’s December 1st! Are you all snuggled up warm and ready for a newsletter packed with some festive goodies and historical facts?
Writing
I’ve been busy in the kitchen this month preparing some new historic recipes and also writing up blog posts. I looked into my local history with a post about how you can follow in the footsteps of the Tudor monarchs in the town of Reading. Back in the sixteenth century Reading was a bustling cloth-making town. Although the abbey was dissolved under Henry VIII, Tudor kings and queens used part of it as a palace. I guide you through a visit to the places they stood all those years ago that you can still visit now.
Talking of Local History, I also wrote a post about how to unravel the stories behind your street and road names. And if you’re looking for a perfect gift for a friend or relative who loves the Tudors, you can find a list of my recommended books here. Why not bake them a Tudor treat too, that they can nibble on while they read? I’ve updated my Big Christmas Tudor Bake Fest post here.
Keep an eye out for the next issue of The Historians magazine, where I’ll have an article that’s perfect for these colder, darker nights that relates to the misty, cobbled streets of the mid-eighteenth century…. Oooooo.
Do you follow me on Instagram and Facebook? I’ll be posting on my History Advent Calendar each day from today, with a historical fact relating to Christmas or the festive season in general, so do keep a lookout for those popping up on your timelines!
Have a subject you’d like to see me tackle on the blog? Email me.
Reading
I’m still reading Dan Jones’ The Plantagenets and saving the hefty Powers and Thrones for when I officially go into hibernation later in the winter. I’ve also been listening to the audio book How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain by Ruth Goodman, which I’ve been really enjoying. She narrates the book herself on the Audible version and so far it’s covered seventeenth century swear words, accusations of witchcraft, local dialects and how you could get into legal trouble for arguing and name-calling. I also learned that Elizabeth I once kept an ambassador bowing in front of her for fifteen minutes until she gave him the signal to rise up.
As I type, paint is drying on a private commission I finished today of a local church, which I’ve loved painting and will be delivering tomorrow! I also attended the Artisa Exhibition at Creativ.Spaces at the end of the month, in aid of the charity Mind. We all submitted pieces responding to the idea of Grounded, and I chose to paint the Medieval church of St Laurence in Reading’s Market Place. I was also photographed by Scarlet Page for her solo exhibition which was held in an adjacent room, where she captured many of us in our creative working environments.
I loved chatting with people at the event and finding out all the stories behind the other artworks. I also ate some cookies. Read all about it, along with why I chose St Laurence’s to paint, here.
In other news, I went out with my Urban Sketching group and sketched some of the actors from Rabble Theatre rehearsing for their play Who Killed Alfred Oliver?. Due to Covid, the play sadly had to close, but we’re hoping they will be able to reschedule soon.
I also finished a marker pen commission of Pangbourne’s nineteenth century Elephant Hotel with lots of tiles and beams which, weirdly, I love to draw!
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.
Nurse finds golden Medieval Bible worth £100,000
The forgotten stories of Welsh Battlefields
Roman statues found underneath a Norman church in Buckinghamshire
The search is on for the lost Medieval port of Ravenser Odd on Yorkshire’s coast
The women of the Scottish Enlightenment
Elizabeth and Mary: Royal Cousins, Rival Queens at The British Library
Thanks for reading! Stay safe, warm and happy and I’ll see you in 2022! Keep in touch in the meantime on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.