After four days of tough slog with chapters one and two, I am pleased to report that I have licked these into shape pretty well and am very happy (though inarticulate from fatigue). Spent most of today in the Bodleian. Have now gone over the 80,000 word mark. Just one more chapter (number three) to make respectable before I get feedback. And then I might just be about ready, after some polishing, to have my first crack at finding an agent. No real opportunity, except the odd evening and a bit of time at the weekends to do any more writing, until the Pope’s visit to Westminster on 17th Sept, which I have taken as a day off.
About Caroline Shenton
Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives in London, and before that was a senior archivist at the National Archives. Her book The Day Parliament Burned Down won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013 and Mary Beard called it 'microhistory at its absolute best' while Dan Jones considered it 'glorious'. Its acclaimed sequel, Mr Barryís War, about the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster, was a Book of the Year in 2016 for The Daily Telegraph and BBC History Magazine and was described by Lucy Worsley as 'a real jewel, finely wrought and beautiful'. During 2017 Caroline was Political Writer in Residence at Gladstone's Library.
