List of Posts

From 2020

• Flowers at the Gate - a brief history of giving quietly

• Enchanted Living - Pre-Raphaelite Edition

• Beyond the Brotherhood - the Pre-Raphaelite Legacy Exhibition

• Tales from the Seashore - when Freddie met the Queen

• Mushrooms - Earthstars, Stinkhorns and other little miracles

From 2019

• The Accession of Elizabeth Tudor

• Beyond the Brotherhood - the Pre-Raphaelite Legacy

• Allan Ramsay - Jacobite or Royalist?

• The Pied Piper of Hamelin

• To the Moon - Endymion and a different kind of Apollo

• Where did Queen Victoria live?

• New Book - Queen Victoria and the Men who Loved Her

• Great Balls of Fire - anniversary of an historic artwork

• Victoria & Albert - newly weds

From 2018

• Happy New Year - reading and writing in 2019

• The Golden Age of Book Covers

• William James Neatby - an introduction

• Why the book is (almost always) better than the movie.

• Elizabeth I’s Sieve Portrait - allegory and meaning.

• John Atkinson Grimshaw - painter of moonlight.

• Remembering Arthur Hughes, the ‘quiet’ Pre-Raphaelite.

• Farringford House restored - the poet Tennyson’s family home.

Fom 2017

• Winter leaves - garden colour and amazement still.

• Wanderer in the Storm - a favourite Gothic painting.

• Happy Birthday Alfred Lord Tennyson! Victorian Poet Laureate.

• Celebrating Midsummer - in painting and verse.

• A Walk in the Bluebell Woods.

• Sir Henry Raeburn - painter of ‘The Skating Minister.’

• Tudors by Holbein - the treacherous court of Henry VIII.

From 2016

• All together now! Queen Victoria’s right royal family gathering.

• Poets for Halloween! Remembering John Keats, his birthday.

• When Alexander met the Queen. The ingenious Graham Bell.

• All of a sudden … it’s Autumn.

• Happy Birthday - Tudor Queen Elizabeth - A portrait in the making.

• Victoria’s Embankment - a story of progress in 19th century art.

• Remembering Anne Boleyn - the ill-fated Tudor Queen.

• Historical Portraits ‘Um, made me a bit shifty-looking, haven’t you?’

• The Testament of Sophie Dawes - a Victorian Gothic novel.

• 7 Questions to an Author.

• Tower of London - also comes with ships.

From 2015

• Review: ‘We Are Villains All.’

• The Blind Girl, by Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais.

• Trafalgar Square from cross to column, a change of place & mood.

• Autumn Extracts - paintings and stories combined.

• Being There - thoughts about living for the moment.

• The Epistolary Novel & Music of Bach - reading between the lines.

• Remembering Inigo Jones - England’s Pioneering Architect.

• A Tudor Poisoned Chalice - Lady Jane Grey & the Crown.

• My Favourite ‘Julia Margarets’ - Pre-Raphaelite photography.

• Scarlet Poppy Fair - a flower with a history.

• The Poet and the Queen - meetings of Victoria and Tennyson.

• Sir Robin’s Election Manifesto, 2015.

• My Favourite Mucha - images from the Belle Epoque.

• Myths, Magic and Mothering Sunday (UK).

• Snowdrops and Periwinkle.

• Time - Regulator or Commander? A history.

From 2014

• A Moment in Time. The Jacobite march south into England.

• GOTH ROBIN - a Special Guest Post for Halloween.

• Lord Kitchener’s Valet - selling to impressionable young men.

• Painted Ladies and Melancholic Poets. The problem with old portraits.

• Q&A with Kirsty Stonell-Walker. It’s all about her new novel.

• A Curl of Copper and Pearl. The story of Alexa Wilding.

• Modern Historical Fiction. Out of time - or is it?

• Portrayals of Mary Tudor, Princess and Queen of England.

• Elizabeth Siddal - a reminder of why we remember.

• Hurrah for matt covers! And paperbacks without curl.

• Isabella .. and the Pot of Basil.

From 2013

• Remembering Holbein - an indefinite ending.

• The Garden in November - a place of colour and surprise.

• Remember, remember - a thought for Guy Fawkes Night.

• 60’s Noir - a special Halloween Guest Post from Sir Robin.

• Halloween and All Souls - Holistic or Hysterical?

• New Cover for The Arrow Chest.

• Working Space.

• What do you see? Perception and memory.

• Thoughts on getting my first ever Kindle.

• Various Observations on a Jolly Good Week.

• Out in the Garden.

• An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump.

• The world upside down. The Masquerade.

• The Sonnet - a no-frills, no-nonsense explanation.

• Mr Wildish’s London.

From 2012

• Flowers. What are they for?

• Death and the Maiden.

• Avant garde? - No, actually that’s Pollock’s.

• Writers’ Embarrassing Ilnesses.

• Making a Point.

• Stunner 2 - a new review.

• What does the mask reveal?

• Published versus Self-Published: a Handy Guide for the Troubled and Bewildered.

• A Special Moment in Time - Part Two.

• Apollo and the Muses of Parnassus.

• Did you know - there’s something about the moon?

• Sir Robin - latest! And a birdbox named Kenilworth.

• Research by Music.

• Elizabeth Siddal Remembered.

• A special moment in time.

• Snap! Which is the older of these two remarkably similar paintings?

From 2011

• Endymion’s New Year’s Honours List.

• A Christmas Message (and why I didn’t just use a photo).

• Vox Populi - a painting, surprisingly, for Christmas.

• Thoughts on an Usherette - art by Edward Hopper.

• A Poem, a Microscope and what we cannot see.

• All Saints - the day after the night before.

• Remembering Thomas Wyatt - Tudor courtier and poet.

• The Doppelgänger - the creative self behind the door.

• Du Bist Die Ruh - one work, 3 great artists.

• Thank you Sir Kenneth Clark - civilisation on TV.

• Happy Summer Solstice! And a little bit of Shakespeare.

• Hardwick Hall - more glass than wall!

• Historical Fiction anyone? Yes, but is it Art?

• Those naughty Pre-Raphaelites - or were they?

• A Special Valentine Idea - introducing the Tussie Mussie.

• A Tudor Tour.

From 2010

• Happy Feast of St Martin!

• The Divine Mr Beardsley.

• John Dee and the Invention of the Telescope.

• How not to become a great opera star - with wine and cheese.

• Those Dull Victorians? Well, no, not really.

• The Feast of Michaelmas.

• Gothic Revival and the Town Halls of the North.

• Pauline Trevelyan - A Diary Entry.

• Caspar David Friedrich ‘Die Lebensstufen’ (1835).

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