Category Archives: Books and magazines

In Search of Good Books

Gifts for Christmas (and other occasions) have traditionally included books. Many people prefer physical books, even if they buy an e-book version as well. E-book sales are apparently no longer rising, while print book sales are holding up, so it looks as if they will continue to make great presents.

Book blogs and more

One problem is knowing what to buy. Newspapers and magazines have reduced the number of books they review, while public libraries are buying fewer books or closing (can you believe that our own brilliant local library was demolished to make way for a 99P store?). Most chain bookstores have changed drastically in the last few years, with far fewer titles being stocked and an emphasis on celebrity books. Perhaps you are lucky to have a good independent bookstore close by, but another very good way of finding out about new and old books is to sign up to some book blogs. There are many wonderful people out there Continue reading →

Plot Going For A Song

Origins of ideas

You often hear authors – fiction ones especially – saying that the most common question they are asked is ‘where do you get your ideas?’ From a reader’s point-of-view, it’s a fair question. Even though we write books, we still want to know how other authors work, how they develop their plots and ideas, and how they interact with their agents and publishers. Some authors, exasperated with the question, have written pieces claiming to buy their ideas from retail outlets. A few weeks ago we spotted ‘Plot For Sale’ on a signboard alongside a Devon country lane Continue reading →

London Library

The London Library was founded in 1841 and is now the largest independent lending library in the world. In 1845, it moved to its present location in St James’s Square and has over a million titles, mostly on open access and available for loan. The library’s website is full of fascinating information, and there are details about membership. A display in an external window in Mason’s Yard is being used to mark the contribution of its members to the literary and creative life of the nation Continue reading →

Retrospective: The War for All the Oceans

Some of the feedback we have received about our latest book, Eavesdropping on Jane Austen’s England (Jane Austen’s England in the USA), has expressed surprise that we have also written naval and archaeological books. All our books are described on our website, but we have decided now and again to look back over some earlier books. So as to commemorate the significant events that occurred in America during the War of 1812 (which actually lasted from 1812 to 1815), we are looking here at The War for All the Oceans.

Continue reading →

Retrospective: Trafalgar

We keep talking about the number of anniversaries in 2015, so perhaps we can squeeze in one more. The 210th anniversary of Trafalgar will fall on 21st October 2015, highlighting that it took a decade after this famous sea battle for Napoleon to be defeated on land at Waterloo.

In September 2001, we were travelling through Spain, a trip that we remember vividly because of the terrible events in New York on the 11th, which we barely understood as it was difficult to get hold of news. A few days later, we reached Gibraltar and visited the Trafalgar cemetery. We were then anxious for the holiday to finish, as we wanted to find out what books were available on Trafalgar and if it was a viable subject for us to tackle for our next book. As it happened, we both embarked on different projects, and it was Roy who wrote the Trafalgar book. Since then, we have resumed writing our books as joint authors.

Like all our books, it was not written for a specialist reader who wanted a blow-by-blow account of every single ship’s manoeuvres. Instead, it deals with Continue reading →

Waterloo Teeth

Two lots of 200 years

The year 2014 saw the 200th anniversary of the ending of the long wars with Napoleon. Like VE Day in 1945, the celebrations in 1814 were especially joyful after more than a decade of war. As we mentioned in our newsletter for Newsletter 39 (under ‘The Start of the Hundred Days’), Napoleon escaped from exile and returned to France in early 1815, only to be defeated once and for all at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium in June 1815, giving us yet another 200th anniversary.

Dentures

The French dead and wounded amounted to around 30,000, while the British suffered around 17,000 casualties and their Prussian allies about 7,000 – a total of approximately 54,000 dead and wounded. Major Harry Smith of the 95th Rifles wrote: ‘I had been over many a field of battle, but Continue reading →

Jane Austen Down Under

A wonderful blog about books is called ‘Read Me: great books to read’. Each month Louise Owens in Australia reviews 10 books “that are fantastic and inspiring reads”, and she also interviews many authors. Book themes include Design and Architecture, Fashion, Biographies and much more. Louise only reviews books that she loves and is so informative and positive that you want to drop everything in order to read them all. We strongly recommend this blog (and you can sign up to the ‘Read Me newsletter’).

In December, the theme was ’10 Great Books about History and Culture’, and we were very pleased that Eavesdropping on Jane Austen’s England was one of those chosen. “There were many wonderful ‘Ah!’ moments for me reading this book,” Louise writes, “when things were explained that I had always wondered about or were mystified by such as the fact that Continue reading →

Jane Austen’s Christmas Heaven

TWO CENTURIES AGO

The striking circumstance about Christmas two centuries ago is what was missing – no Christmas trees, no decorations apart from some holly and ivy, no Christmas cards, no Christmas cake, no Christmas crackers, no Christmas pudding – apart from plum pudding. This was mainly a time for giving charitable gifts. Jane Austen and her contemporaries would not recognise today’s huge commercial Christmas. But if we try to imagine her being teleported into today’s world, then after recovering from the shock, surely she would approve of books being given as gifts? Books were then very expensive – Emma was originally published in three volumes costing one pound and one shilling (£1 1s), about a month’s wage for an agricultural labourer or servant. Today, Emma can be purchased for the price of a cup of coffee.

WHAT TO BUY?

What Jane Austen would find totally unbelievable is that not only are her own books available to buy some two centuries later, but also numerous books about her and her era. By now, you would imagine Continue reading →

Happy Trafalgar Day

Today is Trafalgar Day, marking the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar on 21st October 1805, in which the Royal Navy defeated the combined French and Spanish navy. In the battle, Nelson was killed, along with thousands of seamen and officers from both sides.

Last week we were revisiting Topsham, once an important port situated by the River Exe south of Exeter. Whenever we are travelling, we try to make time to look at some of the churches and churchyards that we pass. Often these have monuments dating back four or five centuries. If these were letters or other pieces of paper in a record office, they would be considered exceptionally rare, but as gravestones or church monuments, they are seldom noticed. You do not have to travel great distances, or look very far back in time, to find interesting monuments. Right on our doorstep at Topsham, we found a monument to a seaman who had fought at the Battle of Trafalgar. At the 200th anniversary of the battle in 2005, many of these Trafalgar monuments, such as this one, were restored.

Memorial to Thomas Randle, Trafalgar veteran

The inscription reads:

THOMAS RANDLE

WHO WAS MANY YEARS

IN THE ROYAL NAVY

HAVING SERVED IN SEVERAL SHIPS

AND AS QUARTERMASTER

ON BOARD THE VICTORY

AT THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR

JAN. 2ND 1851

AGED 78

Thomas Randle did not originally intend to make a career in the Royal Navy. There was always a desperate need for recruits, and most men who wanted to join the navy at that time were signed up in their teenage years – some were only 10 or 11 years old. Thomas was forced into the navy by a press gang Continue reading →

Academic Jargon

We’ve never liked using obscure jargon, preferring an uncomplicated, accessible style. There is an art to writing in plain English. It might be plain, but it needs to flow and allow the reader to concentrate on the story, rather than stumble over ungainly sentences. It was therefore pleasing to receive two reviews in the same week that were from opposite ends of the earth but conveyed an almost identical message. The first one was a review of our most recent book, Eavesdropping on Jane Austen’s England (Jane Austen’s England in the US) that appeared in the Australian blog ‘Reviews on all things Austen’. The reviewer included the comment: ‘I found this book fascinating. It was easy to read (none of that academic jargon)’. The other review was for our previous book, Jack Tar, and it was written by Tony Gerard on the American blog ‘HMS Acasta’ that belongs to a wonderful re-enactment group of the British Royal Navy. ‘Were I an officer,’ he writes [he plays the role of a surgeon’s mate], ‘I’d make it required reading for all Acastas … it’s written in a nonacademic style that’s easy to read.’ We hope he gets promotion soon!