Shin-Kickers From History
A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time: An Interview with Paula Tarnapol Whitacre
It was inevitable that Paula Whitacre and I would meet, virtually if not in real life.* We’ve spent the last few years wading in the same pool: historical non-fiction about women anchored in Alexandria, Virginia during the American Civil War. A small place, a narrow time frame, a world in transition, a million stories. Paula’s…
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The Empress Maud (aka Matilda)
I was first introduced to the Empress Maud and her battles to regain the throne of England by mystery writer Ellis Peters.(1) The war between Maud and her cousin Stephen is the immediate background against which her Brother Cadfael mysteries are set. (One step behind that stand the Crusades–a deft way to place her stories…
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Tiny Bubbles…..
Right now I’m thinking about widows–not for personal reasons but in reference to The Book. I’ve been looking at the concept of the widow’s walk to power: think Corazon Aquino or Sirivamo Bandaraniake, who campaigned as the “weeping widow” to become the world’s first female prime minister in 1960 after the assassination of her husband.…
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