What are you doing for lunch? Fancy joining us for a five-minute history read? The Historia newsletter will be out at lunchtime with a round-up of our top stories and news about awards. See you later!

#WriteCBC task from @rachloudriscoll.bsky.social: Write a mini-scene where the setting is central. Is it friendly, hazardous, or a victim? Try to convey not just the place, but the importance of its role. That might mean bringing in conflict or raising a question that involves the setting.

Surviving Winter in the Middle Ages https://www.medievalists.net/2025/01/surviving-winter-middle-ages/ #winter #medievalsky #historysky

Surviving Winter in the Middle Ages - Medievalists.net

Winter was the most dangerous time of the medieval calendar year. So, how did medieval people cope?

medievalists.net

In case you missed it Cfp for the Defoe conference - as usual also accepting papers on topics related to Defoe and his times. #18thC www.defoesociety.org/conference/

My forthcoming novel features in @historia-hwa.bsky.social's list of novels for 2025 for January! Scroll down the link; #TheBalladofMaryKearney is the second cover you'll see www.historiamag.com/historical-b... #historicalfiction #writingcommunity #author Thank you, @francesowen.bsky.social

Happy New Year, lovely people!

The final JST #JacobiteStudies Virtual Workshop of the term is coming up on Tues, 26 Nov at 5pm UKT. We’ll be welcoming Stefano Baccolo and @f18cal.bsky.social to the digital dais to discuss their recent work on the courts of the Stuart heirs in exile after 1766. jdb1745.net/events/jstwo...

Big shout out for @lizfremantle.bsky.social 2024 Gold Crown Award winner from the Historical Writers Association @francesowen.bsky.social #historicalfiction Read my #Bookreview of #Disobedient for the Historical Novel Society here: historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/diso...

Congratulations to @bridgetwalsh.bsky.social, debut Crown Winner 2024 Historical Writers Association! @francesowen.bsky.social #historicalfiction #Victorian #noir Read my #BookReview for the Historical Novel Society here: historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/the-...

🚨#SarsfieldHomecoming Project🚨 First trailer of a TV documentary dedicated to the project and produced by Scratch Films for RTÉ! Filming began in September 2023 and will end… when the project ends! Very grateful to Liam McGrath for his interest in our work. youtu.be/fEodMunCfrM

FINDING SARSFIELD PILOT

YouTube video by Liam McGrath

youtu.be

What a shame. Our children had a wonderful day out at Archaolink when they were little. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

£4m Archaeolink Prehistory Park on sale for £150k

An abandoned former tourist attraction in Aberdeenshire, which has been derelict for 13 years, has been put on the market for less than 4% of its original cost.

bbc.co.uk

A haunting piece about reconstructed prehistoric homes that have been abandoned and are themselves now becoming archaeology: 'Fragments of material culture ... are slowly becoming archaeology within the interior: this time we can witness the end of a prehistory.'

Gavin MacGregor@gavinmacgregor.bsky.social · 2y ago

An old blog post The End of Prehistory gives a sense of the decline of this heritage centre. heritagelandscapecreativity.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/e... #Archaeology #ArchScot

It's happening: my ERC Consolidator project 🪶#FEATHERS🪶is organising a 3-day international conference on early modern scribal culture & manuscript production at @unileiden.bsky.social on 7-9 May 2025. See Call for Papers (deadline for abstracts 20 Dec): student.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/20...

Acc to @financialtimes.com it appears that the Tortoise deal re The Observer might be subsidised by................. ................ the Scott Trust www.ft.com/content/6045... (£)

Scott Trust to examine investment to secure Observer deal with Tortoise

Owner of Sunday title as well as Guardian will discuss providing funding after staff mount opposition

ft.com

Official photo from the @historia-hwa.bsky.social Crown Awards ceremony. I was there in my capacity as judge of the Nonfiction award. Here's the winner of that award, Henry Hemming, and the back of my head 😂

I’ll link below to a piece which says every antagonist should be the hero of his/her own story. That’s great advice if you want to write a complex, interesting antagonist. Why do they think they’re right? What’s likeable about them? Who do they care about? What makes them cry?

19 November 1745: From Hexham, Field-Marshal Wade informed the Duke of Newcastle that advance parties of the Jacobites were moving to Penrith and that he would be forced to return to Newcastle due to severe weather, lack of supplies, insufficient forces, difficult terrain and sick soldiers.

18 November 1745: Lieutenant-Colonel James Durand sent his report of the fall of Carlisle to Lieutenant-General John Folliot. In the report, he blamed the Cumberland, Westmoreland and Carlisle militia for "having absolutely, to a man" refused to defend the place. RA CP/MAIN/7 f.44-44c.

After accounts of a new bayonet drill being introduced to the British Army by the Duke of Cumberland prior to the battle of Culloden, the Scots Magazine of November 1746 stated that after investigating "there is no foundation... of an alteration having been made in the manner of using the bayonet".

I've taken the liberty of creating the beginnings of a #JacobiteStudies Starter Pack for Bluesky. If you'd like to join please feel free to let me know by responding here or shooting me a DM. go.bsky.app/xt9yhH

A call to all un-agented authors who have written a sweeping historical love story. My submissions are open, and I am waiting to read your book. www.dhhliteraryagency.com/david-h-head...

David H Headley — DHH Literary Agency

dhhliteraryagency.com

And authors earn for each borrow under #PublicLendingRights

Nellie Cubed@nelnelnellie.bsky.social · 2y ago

I’ve mentioned this before, but if you’re short on cash but have an urge to shop, go to your library digital apps and browse the books, audiobooks, movies, shoes, magazines. It works really well to give you the same feeling without spending the cash. (Plus you’re supporting public libraries.) 💙📚

Et pour clore ce petit parcours dans les galanteries XVIIIe siècle, ceci ! En vrai cela parle de tout et de rien, en vers ou en prose, on ne sçait pas bien… Mais la page de titre est fabuleuse !

From the FT the other day. I had no idea.

The Discoveries writing development programme and prize for unpublished women writers in the UK accepts novels in any genre of adult fiction, with entrants invited to submit the first 10,000 words of their novel and a synopsis

Discoveries 2025

Calling all unpublished women writers! The Women’s Prize Trust, Audible, the Curtis Brown literary agency and Curtis Brown Creative have partnered to run the Discoveries novel-writing development prog...

curtisbrowncreative.co.uk

Here’s one for all you proofreaders.

This is amazing. A Lithuanian researcher, Ernesta Kazakėnaitė, has identified the earliest surviving manuscript in a Sámi language: ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/je...

Thought I'd do a thread on writing tips that I might add to from time to time... 1) I've cited this one before on the other place... A description of a person or a place should tell you as much about the person doing the describing as the person or place being described. Examples below.

The HWA members' newsletter is out! Later than usual because of all the fantastic *party photos*, including this one of Emma Darwin, Gold Crown winner Elizabeth Fremantle, Ned Palmer and Matthew Plampin. There's also HWA, book and history news