I used to read whatever took my fancy: a history of witchcraft, a novel about a Japanese student’s…
Balancing hope
It’s done. Salt Magic, Skin Magic – my m/m fantasy romance set in Yorkshire in 1851 – is finished and…
The Tudor Hogwarts
Before Hogwarts, before Ursula Le Guin’s school for wizards on Roke, did you know that a real academy that taught…
Hot gin and sugar with Oliver Twist
Recently I read Christina E. Pilz’s historical m/m romance Fagin’s Boy in which a now grown-up Oliver Twist…
Putting a name to a gibus
I knew Victorian men wore collapsible top-hats to the opera, but I never cottoned on to the fact…
Victorian men and the myth of the stiff upper lip
The Victorians: sentimental and mawkish? Or inventors of the stiff upper lip? Lots of men nowadays feel they…
A Libertine Leech and an Edwardian Elvis
Don’t you love charity shops for books? All sorts of unexpected treasures and out-of-print gems – and all costing…
Victorian history book lust
Today I went to the dentist, which means afterwards I get to buy books. The moment I saw the spine…
Welcome
I’ve been writing stories most of my life, starting with a pastiche of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe…