Watch This: Lorna Doone

Civil war
R.D. Blackmore’s  classic Lorna Doone is a particularly dense novel, containing hundreds of characters and a lot of country philosophizing.    This sort of work is not easy to translate to the screen, but there are more than enough adventure, brawling, and love scenes to do the trick. Writer Adrian Hodges has remained true to [...]

The Trulli of Alberobello

A trullo (plural, trulli) is a traditional stone dwelling with a conical roof. The style of construction is specific to the Itria Valley in the Murge area of the Italian region of Apulia (Puglia). Trulli were generally constructed as dwellings or storehouses, traditionally built without any cement or mortar. These gleaming houses (whitewashed [...]

Classic Lit: Lorna Doone, by R.D. Blackmore

4.0 out of 5 stars John’s coming of age
As a very young child, John Ridd encounters the equally young Lorna while fishing in Doone territory. The Doones, born noble, were deprived of their birthright, and now live in a fortress above the Somerset moors, sometimes emerging to pillage the countryside for food, money, and [...]

It’s a Mystery: The Painter, by Will Davenport

A tale of two times

Two artists, two parallel stories, two love affairs. Amy Dale lives in modern England. A restoration job lands in her lap and takes her to Hull, to the 17th century mansion that may have belonged to her ancestors. Here she makes some intriguing discoveries, while falling hard for a [...]

Historical Fiction: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, by Katherine Howe

the grimoire
There has never been a genuine grimoire, aka book of shadows or spell book, found in the US. When Harvard doctoral student Connie Goodwin moves Marblehead, MA to rehabilitate her grandmother’s historic home, there are many signs and portents that suggest that Connie may be hot on the trail of the first [...]

Biography: Shakespeare’s Wife, by Germaine Greer

A new Ann Hatheway
For centuries, admirers of the Bard have been wondering why he married Ann Hatheway only to leave her for most of the rest of his life. Historically, scholars have almost universally blamed Ann, primarily through the mechanism of applying passages from Shakespeare’s works to his wife, particularly if they are [...]

Bad Girls: Anne Hutchinson, “American Jezebel”

“You have maintained a meeting and an assembly in your house that hath been condemned by the general assembly as a thing not tolerable nor comely in the sight of God nor fitting for your sex.” So spoke John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts Colony, at the trial of Anne Hutchinson, Newtown (later Cambridge), 1637.
For more [...]

Archaeology News: Shakespeare’s first theatre found

Uncovered in London, the site believed to be that of the theater in which Shakespeare acted and Romeo and Juliet was first performed.

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History News: Is This the Real Shakespeare?

A newly discovered painting, in private hands for 300 years, may just be the only (known) portrait of William Shakespeare painted in his own lifetime. Does it matter? Probably not to some people, but it does to me. I’m one of those who believe that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. He’s one of my favorite topics to [...]

Archaeology News: Pequot War Sites in Connecticut

The Pequot War, a 17th century conflict between English settlers and the Pequot tribe in Connecticut Colony, is the focus of a new comprehensive study by a team of UConn researchers.
Kevin McBride, associate professor of anthropology, says the war, which took place from 1636 to 1638 in southern New England, remains one of the most [...]