Cherry blossoms at Yoshino. Katsushika Hokusai 1833.  Met Museum, Rogers Fund 1922. Public domain うつせみの世にも似たるか花ざくらさくと見しまにかつちりにけり Like the wo...

by Deborah Swift The Blogger I've been blogging for more than twelve years now, both here, on my own blog and on other people's blog...

Caroline K. Mackenzie tells the story of her Classics Club and how it has provided her with companionship and inspiration during lockdown. C...

As you may be tired of hearing, I moved house in December (yes in midwinter, in the middle of a pandemic and just before Christmas). Our bo...

  Plaque marking the flood of 1606/7 in Kingston Seamore Church Photo: Anthony Wood Fact is not truth – that’s something both the historical...

The phrase ' tour d'horizon' is one I heard on  the 4th February, when I was on my walk, listening to one of my favourite podca...

  A photo can tell you so much.   When I was writing  Hope against Hope , set in Belfast and along the new Irish border in 1921, I spent a l...