Julia Herdman's Blog: Julia Herdman Books, page 8

How to Make a Character Stand Out a Novel

Believe it or not, the profession or the jobs of your characters do plays a major role in making your novel a hit. That’s because a character’s profession affects the entire story. That’s because it gives an indication of personality, class, wealth and motivation. You can use it as stereo-type for short-hand descriptions or develop […]

Sinclair Extras – Onboard the Sherwell

This scene was almost entirely edited out of the final version of the book. I enjoyed writing it as I was developing the characters of Sinclair and Greenwood. In these scenes the men emerged as they appear in the final novel. The scene is based very loosely on the events surrounding the sinking of the […]

Writers of Influence – Mary Wesley

I loved Mary Wesley’s books. I think I read them all in the 1980s and 1990’s before my children were born. I really enjoyed the TV adaptations too. Her work was refreshing, vivid and bitter sweet, her style was effortless. She is a great influence on me still. Mary Wesley, died aged 90. She amazed […]

Princess Sophia – Seduced, Abandoned and Blackmailed

This is the sad story of Princess Sophia. An unworldly and shy woman who was seduced by a man 33 years her senior, gave birth to his illegitimate child, and was blackmailed by her son to pay his father’s debts. According to biographer Christopher Hibbert, in her young adulthood Princess Sophia, the 5th daughter of […]

A Tale of Three Sisters

Julia Herdman writes historical fiction that puts women to the fore. Her latest book Sinclair, Tales of Tooley Street Vol. 1. is  Available on Amazon – Paperback £10.99 Kindle £2.42 Born in London in 1788, the poet George Gordon Byron, or Lord Byron as we know him, spent his life collecting sensations and courting controversy. While […]

Writers of influence – Hilary Mantel

Julia Herdman writes historical fiction that puts women to the fore. Her latest book Sinclair, Tales of Tooley Street Vol. 1. is  Available on Amazon – Paperback £10.99 Kindle £2.42   There is a poem by WH Auden, called “As I Walked Out One Evening”: ‘The glacier knocks in the cupboard, The desert sighs in the […]

Turkish Delight

Julia Herdman writes historical fiction that puts women to the fore. Her latest book Sinclair, Tales of Tooley Street Vol. 1. is  Available on Amazon – Paperback £10.99 Kindle £2.42 Turquerie was the fashion for all things Turkish. It started in the late sixteenth century and lasted well into the nineteenth. It wasn’t concerned with the […]

The drinking dens of St James’s

For a city with little tradition of hot drinks chocolate was an alien, suspect substance drink associated with popery and idleness. The principal chocolate houses were Ozinda’s and White’s, both on St James’s Street, and the Cocoa Tree on Pall Mall. As befitted their location their interiors were a cut above the wooden, workmanlike interiors […]

The pursuit of love and happiness

Voltaire (1694-1778), the French philosopher and author is one of my hero Sinclair’s favourite authors. He takes his copy of Candide, Voltaire’s satirical novel  to India with him and loses it when the ship goes down but once he’s established himself in Tooley Street he’s quick to buy himself another copy. Candide begins with a […]

The Jacobites – Romantic or Despotic?

The 18th century saw two armed insurrections in support of the ousted Stuart dynasty; one in 1715 and one in 1745. The whole Jacobite movement started when the Stuart King James II was deposed in 1688 and Parliament gave the throne of Great Britain and Ireland was given to his daughter Mary II and her […]