Weekend Links

 

Well, this has been a week that feels like a (long) year.  I am getting ready to dive into some farmers market shopping and reading this weekend before tackling book revisions that just landed on my desk.  And here's a few distraction...  (also, don't forget to talk like a pirate today!  My book High Seas Stowaway, if you want some historical seafaring hijinks is .99)

The V&A opens their "Marie Antoinette Style" exhibit (and I am sobbing not to be there!)

An art conservator restores a portrait of Isabella de Medici

Where is The Great British Bakeoff Filmed?

It was Agatha Christie's Birthday on September 15!  I think I'll do a re-read in her honor (some favorites--Death on the Nile, The Hollow, 5 Little Pigs)

The most beautiful garden you can visit in every state

The jewels of the new Downton Abbey movie (I saw it last weekend!  So fun to see old friends again, and you go, Lady Edith)

Inside the rooms where 20 famous books were written

Portrait of Shakespeare's possible lover found

Weekend Links

 

Happy (just past) longest day of the year!  Be sure and check out my giveaway post, and here's a few things to read...

2000 year old Roman face cream

A "Debo" Devonshire fashion collection from Erdem!

Must-see films that celebrate Paris

Much Ado About First Folios

Battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815

8 Ways to create your own Bridgerton inspired garden

RIP Donald Sutherland

Weekend Links

 Happy post-Thanksgiving weekend, everyone!  I hope you had a lovely day, with lots of pie.  (my holiday was quiet, since my mother just got out of hospital, but we had a yummy lunch and watched the parade and "Doc Martin" marathon on PBS...)  Now back to writing! (hopefully!  The fourth of my Santa Fe 1920s mysteries was turned in, now I'm contemplating my next project and starting to pack for a move)

In the meantime, here's a bit of distraction reading for you...

The return of the Strathmore Rose tiara

You can buy costumes and props from "The Crown"!!! (I'd love the coronation robes for washing dishes and walking the dogs)

"Wolf Hall" will return for part 3

And a Tudor gatehouse is for sale

A.S. Byatt passed away ("Possession" is one of my favorite books of all time)

The oldest bookshops in London

400 years of Shakespeare's First Folio

Weekend Links

 Happy almost Mardi Gras, everyone!  That means winter is creeping toward the finish line (I hope) and flowers and sunshine are ahead.  My day job ( I work part time at a botanical garden) will soon burst back into life again after being buried under snow, and I can get out my summer dresses and sandals.  In the meantime, here are a few reads to distract you...

Poets' dress code

National Trust showcases recycled fashion

February 16--birth of Princess (later Queen) Mary Tudor

Meet the oldest dog!  (a 30 year old Very Good Boy!)

Notre Dame restoration reveals lost medieval burials

Most transportive historical dramas to watch for Valentine's Day (a bit late, but still some great movies for anytime!)

A look back at Harlem Renaissance Fashions

On writing desire in the Regency years

42 best things to do in Paris

Shakespeare's best and worst couples (according to Folger Shakespeare Library)

Everything I know about sex I learned from Edna St. Vincent Millay

Why is Marie Antoinette everywhere again?

Airbnb offers "Phantom of the Opera" theme stay at the Palais Gardinier

Sunday Historical Etsy Find

This week's find--a lovely Shakespeare necklace in honor of the Bard's birthday last week!

So Excited!

Okay, I know it's nerdy of me, but I just can't help it. I am so excited that the Henslowe/Alleyn archive is now online--for free! (See article here) I'm planning an Elizabethan theater story (though I have 2 other books to write first, it's never too early to start research!), and this promises to be an uncommonly rich trove of facts about the theatrical life of the 16th century.

I also saw that the Globe Theatre is planning a new play, Anne Boleyn, by Howard Brenton (see season info here). I would love to see that, as well as Macbeth and Merry Wives of Windsor. I had a wonderful time there a couple years ago seeing Midsummer Night's Dream, it was almost like being transported back to Shakespeare's time. (There was even a family eating stinky fried onions right behind me! Though I suppose to be really authentic they would have thrown it at the stage...)

What's your favorite Shakespeare play?

Hottie Monday Shakespeare Edition

I wasn't sure what to do for Hottie Monday this week, but I've been going through an Elizabethan phase lately with the release of my new book The Winter Queen, so I re-watched one of my favorite movies while I recovered from Halloween Sugar Sickness yesterday--Shakespeare in Love. (I did try to watch the new show Flash Forward, but after its bang-up pilot it went downhill fast! Plus I couldn't get rid of the feeling that Joseph Fiennes was a time-traveling Shakespeare disguised as an FBI agent...)

(BTW, who are some hotties you'd like to see on future Mondays?? I'm setting up a schedule for the next coupld or months!)

Happy first Monday of November!

What I'm Reading Today

What I'm reading today: The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World by Paul Collins. A witty look at 2 of my (many) obsessions, Shakespeare and book collecting! Collins traces the history of the First Folio (and really the history of publishing in England) from Heminge and Condell through the huge book losses of the Great Fire, the glory days of the 18th century and rival Shakespeare editors (they really got down and dirty), the Victorian idea of Shakespeare, how big old Will is in Japan, to the present day (where a Folio sold at Sotheby's for over $5 million. Not, alas, to me). A great read. (The only quibble I had was the lack of endnotes and a proper bibliography--there was a lot I was curious about...)



Oh, and I'm over at Risky Regencies today celebrating the birthday of Elizabeth Gaskell, the woman who brought us North and South and thus Richard Armitage.

What I'm Reading Now

The concrete details of Shakespeare's life are pretty meager (a few signatures, a wedding date, a mention in a lawsuit, etc), yet there always seem to be plenty of biographies out there! And I always read them. :) This is the one I'm reading now...

New Shakespeare Portrait

I've been reading articles about the "newly discovered" Shakespeare portrait (which hung quietly in an Irish house for 400 years). (See one such article here)

It does sound more plausible that the totally unbelievable Jane Austen "Chandos portrait" that went to auction not long ago (and failed to say, because everyone could see how thin that story was!). Plus Shakespeare was kind of a cutie, if this portrait is to be believed, with great fashion sense! What do you think?