Well, 2013’s been a year and half, that’s for sure. Thanks for sharing it with me. Here’s a bit of a recap for those not on the rollercoaster: January The Day Parliament Burned Down is shortlisted for the Longman-History Today Prize. I attend the jolly party, and while the book doesn’t win, I’m just delighted […]
Publicising the Book
Talking Books 1: My Patented Talk-Giving Pack
Having given over 50 talks in the last year or so, I now have packing for them down to a fine art. The perfect history book talk pack comprises the following for me: One small hard-sided suitcase with wheels – cabin baggage size. Mine is this one – yes, expensive but very hard-wearing, has an interior net on […]
Happy Anniversary, Great Fire of Westminster!
Yes, it’s 179 years since the old Houses of Parliament burned down. Last year there was the very successful real-time tweet of the events of 16 October 1834 (you can still see the story as it unfolded on Twitter), and this year there are more treats to mark the anniversary. Firstly, there’s a brand new […]
My Hot Date with Mr Turner
I’m currently on a lecture tour for the Royal Oak Foundation (Americans in Alliance with the National Trust), and a few days ago I had the opportunity to visit one of the great Turner oils of the 1834 fire – which now hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. During the writing of The Day […]
Relics of the Old Palace of Westminster
One of my hopes on publishing The Day Parliament Burned Down was that new information which I had been unable to track down in my research would come to light when readers and audiences got to hear about the fire. The most obvious one was to find out what ultimately happened to Chance the dog, but I also […]
178 Years Ago Today…
On the 178th anniversary of The Day Parliament Burned Down, I’m enjoying this cartoon… If you’d like to follow the story of the 1834 fire in real time today and tomorrow, go to Twitter and follow @ParliamentBurns. See you there!
