At school, my daughter was admonished never to quote Wikipedia as a source in her history essays, so when an invite to a Women in Red editing event from Edinburgh University’s Wikimedian in Residence popped into my inbox, I was intrigued. Universities collaborating with Wikimedia: Who Knew? Women in Red: What was that about? With a free afternoon, I thought,…
I first visited the Boswell Offices at Yale in 2018 to see what materials they had on Mary Bryant. Dr. Gordon Turnbull, the editor of the Yale Editions of the Boswell Papers, loaded me up some some night-time reading. As I went through Security at JFK airport, books tumbled out of my hand luggage. The security guard smiled, picked up…
Over 20 years, Lt. Col. Ralph Isham amassed the Boswell Collection, which related to Mary Bryant. There are two great books, The Treasure of Auchinleck: The Story of the Boswell Papers by David Buchanan and Pride & Negligence: The History of the Boswell Papers by Frederick A. Pottle. As with so much history, they focus on the Great Men involved.…
Every day the average person reads thousands of words. These words come in all forms, from cooking instructions on a food tin, a WhatsApp on our phones or a glance at the heading of a promotional pamphlet that plops through our front door. We cannot avoid words. But meaningful reading, whether for work or pleasure is something else. There is…
Hi, Welcome to my website. I am a lawyer who loves reading books of all sorts but especially history about women in the long eighteenth century, be they highwaywomen or heiresses, authors or actresses, voyagers or victims. In my blog you will find stories about these women, books I am reading and the little things that make me think or…
