Latest Posts

  • Historic Houses: Sir John Soane’s Museum, a Victorian Wonder

    Spring is in the air, and it felt like a perfect time to revisit the Historic Houses series. This tends to be the time of year us Brits start to make plans, as the weather gets (generally) better and the days are now longer again. Years ago I visited Sir John Soane’s Museum in London,…

  • Royal People: Princess Nest, Wales’ Romanticised Heroine?

    People love a good story. And when real life seems to mirror tales of old, then we can get caught up in it all and conflate them into our own romanticised version. One woman who this certainly applies to is Princess Nest ferch Rhys who, since the 19th century, has been known as “Helen of…

  • Eyam: England’s Infamous Plague Village

    In a world still reeling from a global pandemic, it can feel fresh to look at situations from the past that echo that which we have lived through the past few years. But a moment in history that has remained tucked away in my brain for years, ever since reading a historical fiction novel about…

  • Victorian Romance: The Art of Cobweb Valentines

    Today is Valentine’s Day, a centuries-old holiday celebrating love, strangely on a day commemorating someone’s execution. From the late medieval period in Europe, when courtly love and chivalry were at their peak, it became popular to think of romantic love on this day. By the 18th century, the day had become a time for lovers…

  • A Brief Moment of History: When Napoleon Took on Rabbits

    If you are familiar with my “brief moment of history” series, then you may have read about the time the Australian army fought a war against emus (and lost). When looking at history, it seems that great military men losing fights against animals is not so unique. This brings us to Napoleon. Napoleon Bonaparte is…

  • Seeing the Dead: The Fayum Mummy Portraits

    One unifying thing that people find enjoyable about history is learning about the people who have come before us. We want to feel connected to our ancestors, to understand how they dealt with the trials and tribulations of their times, how wars were started, palaces were built, empires spread – but also the stories of…

  • A Brief Moment of History: Was Queen Elizabeth I Secretly a Man?

    There are many historical conspiracy theories that abound (often involving aliens…) but one of my favourite is the peculiar theory that Tudor Queen Elizabeth I was, in fact, a man. Let us explore! The theory was first written down back in the nineteenth century by Dracula author, Bram Stoker. Bram had visited the village of…

  • An Interview With: Thilde Kold Holdt, Historical Fantasy Author

    I am very excited to have another fantastic guest on Just History Posts for our interview series, Thilde Kold Holdt. Thilde is a Viking, traveller and a polygot fluent in Danish, French, English and Korean. As a writer, she is an avid researcher. This is how she first came to row for hours upon hours…

  • Royston Cave: An Unexplained Enigma

    Humans have been drawn to caves since their earliest days. Places of shelter, they sometimes evolved into something new: places of burial, religious ritual, to record one’s history on its walls. Many mysterious workings of humankind have been found across the world, and one English cave adds to this tradition. Royston is a small town…