Welcome to the SilverWood Books Blog Hop! A few of our authors have come together to share a variety of articles and items of interest on their blogs for your enjoyment. There are some lovely giveaway prizes, and – to stay in keeping with the Spring and rebirth theme at this time of year – some colourful Easter eggs. Feel free to collect the eggs, and use them where you like. They were drawn by SilverWood author Peter St John who writes the ‘Gang’ series about a boy who was evacuated to a village near Ipswich during WWII. Meet Peter and his characters on the Blog Hop, along with a host of eggcellent SilverWood authors.  To find their blogs follow the links at the bottom of the page. (Links will be live from 17 April 2014.) Have fun! Helen Hart Publishing Director, SilverWood Books www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk  And here is my blog... The Female Writer's Apology; Or, Then and Now In my eight...

Phyllis of the Die-Hards I recently bought on eBay a First World War postcard: Phyllis of the Die-Hards . My interest in the card is in the image, which is one of many representations of women at work during the war. The card was posted in West Ealing, London on 1 October 1917, with the following message:    “Est-ce que tu me reconnaisse? Nous sommes tres saufes après les visites d’airoplanes. Avec beaucoup amour. P[signature illegible – could it be Phyllis?]”    It was addressed to “2 nd Lieut J A R Andrews, 6 th Lincolnshire Regt, BEF, France”.    I was intrigued by the message and the fact that it had been sent to a soldier. It also seemed to me that it provided a lot of information, and that although Andrews is not an uncommon surname, the initials “J A R” are. Not really expecting much to come of it, I did a Google search. To my astonishment, I came upon an entry about 2 nd Lieut Andrews of the 6 th Lincolnshire at www.findagra...

I recently went to the British Library’s exhibition “Georgians Revealed: Life, Style and the Making of Modern Britain ”. By tracing similarities between our modern lifestyle and that of the era of the four Georges (1714 to 1830), the exhibition explores how much of our contemporary culture has its origins in the tastes of the eighteenth century. Many of our favourite obsessions – celebrities, fashion, shopping, sport, tourism – were enjoyed by the Georgians. The point is illustrated in part by the careful grouping of objects in themes such as homes and gardens, shopping and fashion, culture and ideas, and leisure and pleasure. These themes are reflected in the arrangement of the beautifully-illustrated book which accompanies the exhibition.    There are the sort of items I pretty much expected to see, without which no Georgian exhibition would be complete, such as teapots, theatre programmes and prints. Then there were things I was thrilled to see: The Tea-Table , the pe...

2014 is, as everyone must be aware by now, the anniversary of the start of the First World War, and so it seemed fitting that when I was in Mallorca early this month I made a pilgrimage to the home of Robert Graves. Robert von Ranke Graves (1895–1985) was one of the First World War Poets, who included, for the men, Graves’s friend Siegfried Sassoon, and Wilfred Owen. Amongst the women First World War Poets were Vera Brittain, Rose Macaulay and Charlotte Mew.    Graves separated from his wife and moved to Mallorca with his lover, American poet Laura Riding (1901–1991), in 1929. They built a house, which they called Ca n’Alluny, in the mountain village of Deià on the north west coast, at that time a fishing village. It’s an artist’s dream home, and indeed the area had earlier attracted other artists including Chopin and George Sand.   Graves’s house is in a beautiful setting, high above the Mediterranean with views down to the glinting ocean. In the olive groves goat...

Join our Winter Solstice Blog Hop! Thirty writers throw light on a dazzling range of topics . Follow the links at the end of this article to be enlightened and brightened by our blogs...  “Inclosure came and trampled on the grave Of labours rights and left the poor a slave And memorys pride ere want to wealth did bow Is both the shadow and the substance now.”    John Clare, The Mores     On 1 May 1794, the writer Hester (Thrale) Piozzi of Streatham Park recorded in her diary that the furze on the common had been set on fire in protest at the enclosure of land “which really & of just Right belonged to the poor of the Parish”. Yet even while she acknowledged that the protesters had justice on their side, she criticised them for not “going to Law like wise fellows” and concluded: “So senseless are Le Peuple , & so unfitted to be souverain”. The senseless poor of Streatham were not unique. During the eighteenth centu...