Francis Bacon is remembered as the Father of Science, but he didn’t invent anything, like Galileo Galilei’s thermometer, or discover anything, like Johannes Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. He didn’t do much in the way of experiments, spending the majority of his career in law and politics. He was an… Read More »What’s the what with Francis Bacon? by Anna Castle
At the court of Elizabeth I, gifts were given at the New Year, not Christmas. The legal year began in March, but most people still celebrated the old midwinter holiday when days began getting longer as the start of a new year. It was part of the Twelve Days of… Read More »The New Year in Elizabethan Times by Peg Herring
The third book in the Francis Bacon mystery series is called The Widows Guild. I invented the society of influential women, but not its founders: Francis Bacon’s mother, Lady Anne Bacon, and his aunt, Lady Elizabeth Russell. I’m always looking for ways to bring women into my books as protagonists;… Read More »Introducing the widows: Francis Bacon’s redoubtable relations by Anna Castle
The end of summer is a bittersweet time for many children. Alongside the thrill of acquiring new pencil boxes, markers and notebooks is the realization that the days of seemingly endless freedom are done. In their place will be lessons to learn, homework to finish, tests to take. One day,… Read More »Back to School: A Girl’s Education During Tudor, Regency & American Revolutionary Times
Writing has been invented more than once on our small planet. The Olmecs of MesoAmerica were writing histories in stone by 900 BCE. Chinese characters, probably an independent invention, date from 1200 BCE. The ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia were writing more than mere accounting records in 3200 BCE. Our writing… Read More »Writing in the past: the tools of our trade by Anna Castle