Julia Herdman's Blog: Julia Herdman Books, page 16

The Rotten Boroughs of England

Old Sarum in Wiltshire, a ruined medieval abbey, was the most notorious rotten or pocket borough in Britain. This wind swept ruin in Wiltshire was the possession of the Pitt family from the mid-17th century until 1802, and one of its Members of Parliament was Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder. It had three houses […]

Leicester and the origin of Parliament

The first English Parliament was summoned by Simon de Montfort in 1265. Also known as Simon de Munford he was a French-English nobleman who inherited the title and estates of the earldom of Leicester in England. He led the rebellion against King Henry III of England during the Second Barons’ War of 1263–64, and subsequently became […]

Political Satire

With another General Election announced by British Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday, my mind turned to politics. It’s one of life’s best spectator sports for history lovers like me and a good political caricature or cartoon adds to the fun. Being interested in all things late 18th century my mind naturally turned to James Gillray. […]

Mary Woolstonecraft’s Friends

Mary Wollstonecraft was born on 27 April 1759 she is one of the world’s first feminist writers. She decided to become a writer in 1787, 230 years ago, and moved to 45 George Street, in Southwark, now called Dolben Street. It was from Dolben Street that she launched her career, with the publication of her novel, Mary: A […]

White’s Chocolate House

Think of the words ‘white’ and ‘chocolate’ and the images that come to mind are those of the ‘The Milky Bar Kid’ or that luxury white chocolate flecked with fine black vanilla seeds but White’s and chocolate in the 18th century meant something entirely different; gambling. The impetus for London’s chocolate craze came from France, […]

The London Earthquake

On the 8th of March, 1750, an earthquake shook London. The shock was at half past five in the morning. It awoke people from their sleep and frightened them out of their houses. A servant maid in Charterhouse-square, was thrown from her bed, and had her arm broken; bells in several steeples were struck by […]

The Leadams of Tooley Street

Tooley Street in Southwark is the location of my new novel Sinclair. Today is it’s one of London’s best known streets, home to London Bridge Station and the London Dungeon, and is close to the London Shard and City Hall. Running parallel to the Thames on the south side Tooley Street is one of the […]

The Wreck of the Halsewell, 1786

The wreck of the ‘Sherwell‘ in my new novel Sinclair is based loosely on the wreck of the East Indiaman the Halsewell a ship captained by a man called Richard Pierce; Captain Richards in my story. The Halsewell left Gravesend docks on the first day of January 1786 with a manifest of 240 people and […]

The Milk of Human Kindness?

Elite women rarely nursed their own children in the past, the business of nursing was one for the lower classes who almost always fed their own children if they could. Social historians have tracked the practice and results in 18th century London and found that when the upper classes handed their children over to ‘surrogate’ […]

Widow’s Weeds

By the late 19th century, mourning behaviour in England had developed into a complex set of rules, particularly among the upper classes. For women, the customs involved wearing heavy, concealing, black clothing, and the use of heavy veils of black crêpe. The entire ensemble was colloquially known as “widow’s weeds” (from the Old English waed, […]