unhappy marriages

When Death calls your name – a reflection on the Moritz Monument and a gagged lady

I was recently in Dresden, which has absolutely no connection to the books I am writing or planning to write. But sometimes, life invites you to stroll down an alternative path, which is why my friend Alison Morton and I took a long weekend in Saxony. Alison, of course, had a reason for wanting to […]

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Juana de Castro – the maybe queen

Recently, I posted about a book dealing with Inés de Castro, a purportedly very beautiful woman who caught the eye (and heart) of Pedro of Portugal. Now, it would seem the de Castro genes were very good genes, because Inés had a younger half-sister named Juana whose beauty also caught the eye (but not the

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I want out! – or how the history of divorce can inspire a book

It is estimated that approximately 40-50% of all present-day marriages in the Western Hemisphere end in divorce. A rather depressing statistic, some say. A consequence of longer lifespans, the anthropologist will counter, adding that few marriages in the past spanned several decades—usually they ended due to the untimely death of one of the parties. According

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