Transcribing a few pages of York’s Wardmote Court Book every morning is my daily treat (sad, I know!) The bulk of the surviving 16th-century records run from 1575 to 1586, and now that I’m picking […]
I’ve recently had a letter from the City of York Council about changes to the rubbish collection arrangements in my street. For a while we had the use of communal bins, but they have now […]
From the Monk wardmote court held on Friday 5th June 1579 …. Mr Palmer, Mr Slater, and the priests Sir John Hunter and Sir John Richardson were all fined 10 shillings for keeping cattle on […]
When I’m not writing, or editing, or teaching, or going out for coffee, or planning a trip away or sitting in one of York’s many bars, all of which takes up a disproportionate amount […]
I’ve been thinking about the past a lot recently. Not the distant past, for once, but my personal past. For more than 20 years, I’ve been writing romances as Jessica Hart, and I’ve just self-published […]
Finding the right name for a character is one of the most important stages in writing a book, particularly when it comes to historical fiction when names must feel authentic. I’m often asked where I found […]
It’s a sad fact that whenever I read a newspaper, the word most likely to catch my eye is ‘rubbish’. I blame this on the fact that my PhD thesis, in spite of its grand […]
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