World War 2 poetry blog updated with a look at Louis MacNeice's poem 'The News-reel' from 1944 https://worldwar2poetry.blogspot.com/2024/11/louis-macneice-1907-1963-news-reel.html

I have updated blog with a post about Branwell Brontë' and his poem 'The Afghan War'. Branwell has had such a 'bad boy' reputation due to his addictions thought that wanted to add something different to the myth.
https://bleakchesneywold.blogspot.com/2024/09/branwell-bronte-afghan-war.html

I have read and reviewed 'The Face in the Glass-The Gothic Tales of Mary Elizabeth Braddon' for my blog. Part of the British Library 'Tales of the Weird' series. Some real gems by a much neglected Victorian writer. #Victorian , #19thcenturywomen'#womenwriters,

https://bleakchesneywold.blogspot.com/2024/09/review-face-in-glass.html

Have updated my blog with a post about the ghost story 'The Sand-walker' by Fergus Hume (1859-1932) . Centred around quicksand and spectral revenge. First published in 1906 https://bleakchesneywold.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-sand-walker-fergus-hume-1859-1932.html

Latest blog update with a post about 'The Ghost's Walk' from 'Bleak House', Dickens's English Civil War related Ghost Tale.

https://bleakchesneywold.blogspot.com/2024/07/chesney-wold-and-mystery-of-ghosts-walk.html

Have updated the blog with a post about 'The Sparkler' a first novel from the poet Alan Humm. A fictional look at Charles Dickens's life in exploring the darker side of London in 1836-37, on the cusp of his fame. #19thcentury,#charlesdickens,#fictionsetinthe19thcentury,

https://bleakchesneywold.blogspot.com/2024/06/review-sparkler-by-alan-humm.html

Blog updated with post about Anne Bronte's 1848 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall' :This tale of a rebellious woman who turns her back on a toxic marriage is unusual for the Victorian era.
#AnneBronte,#19thcenturyfiction,
#womenwriters, #19thcenturynovels.
https://bleakchesneywold.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall-anne-bronte.html

Unveiled in 1980 in the woods by The Hague , 'The Fall of Icarus' by Titus Leeser, in memory of the British Agents and Dutch Resistance fighters executed in 1942-1944. Caught up in the 'Englandspiel' , British intelligence's scheme to land agents in occupied Netherlands, which had unfortunately been infiltrated by the Germans, Photo in public domain, via Wikipedia Netherlands. #Worldwar2monuments, #Occupiednetherlands,#dutchsculpture #dutchsculpture,#Dutchhistory

Blog updated with a post about Wilkie Collins's 1873 novel 'The New Magdalene' https://bleakchesneywold.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-new-magdalene-by-wilkie-collins.html

I have just updated blog with a new post concerning the sensation novel 'Lady Audley's Secret' by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. An 1860's bestseller which has not really stood the test of time so well.

​Lady Audley has been called 'part heroine/ part monster'. Certainly never dull. #19thcenturynovels,#19thcenturywomenwriters, #VictorianStudies #maryelizabethbraddon

https://bleakchesneywold.blogspot.com/2024/03/lady-audleys-secret-mary-elizabeth.html

Sad to see the Lord Byron statue in London caged and standing on an inaccessible traffic island. Time it was relocated. #lordbyron, #19thcenturyhistory, #lordbyronstatue https://bleakchesneywold.blogspot.com/2024/03/lord-byron-statue-appeal.html

Interesting feature in 'The Guardian' about Dickens's novels being dramatised for the stage in Britain. A new play based on 'Our Mutual Friend' is opening at the National Theatre soon.#CharlesDickens,#19thcenturynovels, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/mar/03/great-expectations-bleak-house-dickens-stage-london-tide-national-theatre

Blog updated with a post about Hardy's neglected novel ' A Laodicean' (1881). #ThomasHardy, #19thcenturyliterature, #19thcenturynovels. https://bleakchesneywold.blogspot.com/2024/02/thomas-hardys-laodicean-story-of-today.html

Nina Simone (21st February 1933- 21st April 2003) would have been 91 years old today. Here is her version of 'I Put a Spell on You' , originally written and recorded by Screamin' Jay Hawkins in 1956. #Ninasimone,#Soulmusic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua2k52n_Bvw

Sunday morning here in England. Need some soul music to get going. Richie Havens at Woodstock 1969. Nothing clever or ironic, but straight from the heart #soulsmusic, #Richiehavens, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rynxqdNMry4&list=PLTEgNsUAZkJ3AAScqoyFiYlXgV32owNUY

Blog updated with post about play 'The Frozen Deep' by Wilkie Collins with input from Charles Dickens: Based on Sir John Franklin's 1845 failed Arctic expedition https://bleakchesneywold.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-frozen-deep-play-by-wilkie-collins.html #19thcenturyliterature ,#wilkiecollins,

Recently read & reviewed a novel titled 'The Second Mrs Clare' by Mike Langridge, a sequel to Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the d'Urbevilles' . Highly recommended. #Thomashardy #historicalfiction https://bleakchesneywold.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-second-mrs-clare.html

I have tried writing about the Mayerling incident of 30th January 1889 and the deaths of Austrian Crown Prince Rudolph and his mistress Mary Vetsera, most likely partners in a suicide pact.

https://bleakchesneywold.blogspot.com/2024/01/mayerling-incident-1889.html

Just had to share this today : The Bite Sized Audio version of Frank Cowper's 'Christmas Eve on a Haunted Hulk'
published in 1889, but set in 1870 : A chap decides to visit a friend who lives nearby some tidal mudflats and goes looking for ducks to shoot. He encounters a rotting ship which was formerly used as a prison hulk, and borrows a boat and punts out to explore.
This dunce ends up trapped on board the ship as darkness falls.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO6gN-TRvHM

New blogpost about Mary Elizabeth Braddon's novella 'Good Lady Ducanyne' (1896) maybe #vampire fiction, or early #SciFi #19thcentury fiction https://bleakchesneywold.blogspot.com/2023/11/good-lady-ducayne-mary-elizabeth.html