According to folklore, February is the time that birds begin to mate, and the first signs of Spring appear. As was normal in earlier periods, the arrival of Spring was expressed in terms of the feast-day of a saint; in this case, one of two early Roman martyrs, both named Valentinus, who died on 14 […]
Health and Hellfire: Personalising the Plague in 17th Century London
Deborah Swift explores how the plague was understood and treated in 17th century London. Today, people have widely variable responses to disease and its cure. I don’t think I’m alone in having friends who show hypochondriac tendencies, who use ‘alternative’ or even quack medicines, or who are convinced that a random event, real or supernatural, has […]
Animating Pepys’ Women
Four of my novels have been set in the seventeenth century, and for all of them I have used Pepys’ Diary as an integral part of my research process. In the process, I became fascinated by the women who appear as vague figures in the background, between the lines, always overshadowed by Pepys’ ebullient presence. […]
HNS Conference 2016
Deborah Swift reports on this year’s Historical Novel Society Conference in Oxford. This year’s Historical Novel Society Conference was held in Oxford, a beautiful and historic setting for what turned out to be a thought-provoking event for writers and readers of what has come to be labelled ‘historical fiction’. The conference itself was based in […]