History Girls: The Secret Garden: Contraceptives in the Ancient World
My latest essay on the History Girls explores the natural remedies used in the ancient world for contraception including a garden fruit, and a mysterious plant from a distant land. The Secret Garden: Ancient World Contraception.
Guest Post: Research and reaching across the ether
I love research! I was delighted that Mary Anne Yarde asked me to tell the story of how I reached across the internet to various historians for assistance – it ended in my characters voicing an audio-visual exhibition in a museum outside Rome where my saga was set! Read ‘Research and reaching across the ether’ […]
Who were the Mysterious Etruscans?
There is a tale told by Herodatus, the famous Greek historian, about a wily prince called Tyrrhenus who saved his people by encouraging gambling. The story goes like this. Once in the land of Lydia there came a time when the harvest could no longer fill the bellies of all. So the king cast half […]
Two lovers blamed for starting a war – The Golden Dice – A Tale of Ancient Rome
Two lovers blamed for starting a war. Three women who must survive a siege. There would be few people who haven’t heard of the famous siege of Troy. The tales of the heroics of Achilles, Hector, Agamemnon and Menelaus have been handed down for thousands of years. So too the infamy of the lovers, Helen […]
Warding Off Evil: The Power of a Loving Embrace
Sarcophagus of the Married Couple Late C6th BCE ‘There was a smooth, round contentment to her as she sat upon a dining couch with her husband, head resting against his shoulder as he embraced her. Their happiness revealed by the curve of their lips and the ease of their touch…’ The Wedding Shroud Lucy Bertoldi […]
Review: Birds Without Wings by Louis De Bernieres
A dense, enthralling and terrifying novel that describes man’s inhumanity to man in the first few decades of the 20th century in Turkey, Greece and the Balkans. It is a sprawling saga with its genesis in the peaceful village of Eskibahce in the south west of Turkey. Here Turkish Muslims and Greek Christians have lived […]
The Realm of The Dead: Afterlife in the Ancient World
Suzanne Adair, author of Camp Follower and many other novels has featured this guest post in Relevant History on her blog. The ancient Greeks believed in an underworld to which the souls of the dead journeyed. It was known by names such as Hades or Erebus which have become synonymous with the concept of ‘Hell’. […]
Guest Post The Realm of the Dead: Afterlife in the Ancient World
Suzanne Adair, author of Camp Follower has featured my guest post on her Relevant History blog: The Realm of the Dead: Afterlife in the Ancient World
Pomegranates and Silphium: Fertility Control in the Ancient World
Tracy Falbe, author of The Rhys Chronicles Series, has featured this guest post on her blog, Her Ladyship’s Quest. Childbirth is dangerous. The Western world often forgets this. The advances made in medicine and mothercraft to improve the mortality rates of both mother and babies have been remarkable but are now taken for granted. So […]
A Queen, an Eagle and Destiny
‘Tarchon pointed to the eagle as it soared into the stillness. ‘An eagle brought a sign to Tanaquil that her husband would be King of Rome.’ Caecilia refused to look at the bird, not wanting to hear another of Tarchon’s tales, especially about an Etruscan woman who became a Roman queen.’ The Wedding Shroud As […]