Ugh. I’m going to come clean here and admit I don’t like New Year celebrations. Don’t get me wrong – I like the parties and the good food and the champagne and the dancing, but the closer we get to midnight, the more I start to feel a certain malaise spread through me. It
They say life may be possible on other planets. There is water on Mars, even on the moon, and as long as there’s water, life as we know it has a fighting chance. Or so they say. The future of humanity may lie beyond our galaxy, as intrepid colonists of other worlds, so distant the
It’s some time since I wrote anything about a Spanish Hapsburg, and by now I am suffering such severe withdrawal symptoms I’ve decided there’s nothing to it but to throw myself headlong into the story of Ana María Mauricia, Spanish Infanta and future French Queen. Choosing Ana is rather apt, as here in Sweden December
Edward I comes down through history to us as a man not much given to romantic gestures. This after all, is the man who implemented being hung, drawn and quartered for treason, who expelled the Jews in 1290, and who spent a considerable part of his life hammering the Welsh and the Scots into submission
I am convinced the reason man rose to stand on two feet was to invent the hug. Okay, okay: I know that from a strictly evolutionary perspective, there were other, far more basic, reasons for this shift from quadruped to bipeds – starting with the obvious advantage of being able to see further and use
Some things get to me. One of those things is the label “clean” which is used to refer to books that lack any sexual content. Why? Because per definition, the antonym to clean is dirty, ergo all books that do have sexual content are soiled and tawdry. I also find it interesting that there is
Dot, dot, dot – the difference between clean and dirty? Read More »
Let’s face it: for women, things went decidely downhill with the advent of Christianity. Take, for example, my northern corner of the world. Viking women had always had a strong position in society, in many ways considered equal to any man. A woman could raise rune stones – she could build bridges, run farms, inherit
Queen for a day – of bridecrowns in gold and myrtle Read More »
If one is going to be financially successful as a writer of historical fiction, one should write about the Tudors. Or about Rome – or medieval England. Maybe even Regency (especially when thinking Romance). Somehow, the 17th century exists in a bubble of obscurity, trapped between the great drama of the 16th century and the
Give me a choice between a tournedo and a chocolate praline, and I’ll go for the praline. Plant a lobster in front of me, and chances are I’ll still go for the praline – not always, but most of the time. Tempt me with gorgeous salmon sandwiches or a Swiss roll and I’ll be sinking
Our bed in the country house is 20 centimetres narrower than our bed in town. (That’s like 8 inches for those of you as yet uncomfortable with the metric system) Not much to write home about, one would think, but let me tell you it makes a huge difference to how we sleep. In the