A women’s detective agency? Why?
Hello, friends! I’m guest-blogging this week at Bites, where Donna asked me why I chose to write about a women’s detective agency in Victorian London. The short answer? I love bright and shiny...
View ArticleI’ll never tire of sewers
Really, what’s not to love? That’s why I recommend this BBC radio program about the desperate state of London’s current sewer system. In the late 1850s (immediately following the action of A Spy in the...
View ArticleYes. THIS.
I have the most interesting, keen-eyed friends a girl could ask for. A few days ago, my fellow Master of Arts (that’s what they said at our convocation: “Rise, Master of Arts!”) Jo Valin sent me this...
View ArticleGrit and pathos
Hello, friends. On Friday, I was over at Nineteenteen, blogging about the history of the London Foundling Hospital – essentially the first charity orphanage in a huge city rife with abandoned babies...
View ArticleSlumming
Hello, friends. The best thing about grad school, in my opinion? The really smart, interesting people I met, and how they’ve enriched my life and stretched my brain. One of my friends, Keri Walsh,...
View ArticleThe Omnibus Edition
Hello, friends. We’re currently visiting family in Lancashire, England, and I have been lazy with the camera. That is, I’ve taken lots of photos of cousins and aunties and old friends, but not much...
View ArticleFaster, Higher, Stronger
So, the Olympics. As cynical as we’ve become about doping, fiscal and political scandals in host cities, and the sheer pomp of the Games, the athletic performances themselves are truly stirring,...
View ArticleThe Inimitable
Hello, friends. Yesterday, I began reading Claire Tomalin’s latest biograpy, Charles Dickens: A Life. I had extremely high hopes for this book, so much so that I worried that my hopes were unreasonably...
View ArticleIt was a dark and stormy night.
Hello, friends. I was just tinkering with what I think will be the first chapter of Rivals in the City and thinking about Elmore Leonard’s dictum, “Never open a book with weather.” (There’s a ton more...
View ArticleFurnishings for the Middle Class
Hello, friends. This past weekend, we learned that Turk’s, our favourite antique-y store in Kingston, is closing. We’re really crestfallen because over the years, we’ve ended up buying most of our...
View ArticleCD and me
Hello, friends. A couple of days ago, I saw a car driving very slowly around the car park of Portsmouth Olympic Harbour in Kingston. This isn’t unusual. The harbour is always busy with runners,...
View ArticleWhen the competition becomes cutthroat
Hello, friends. I have some particularly lovely and extremely immodest news to share with you, this week: The Traitor in the Tunnel has been shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award! I’m especially...
View ArticleViva the Victorians
Hello, friends! When I last posted, I had just arrived in England and was feeling both stunned (about finishing Rivals in the City) and exhausted (by finishing Rivals in the City). But this week, I’m...
View ArticleFatberg!
Hello, friends! Did you hear about the “fatberg”? It was a 15-ton conglomeration of solid fat found in a London sewer. (This NPR blog post has a photo. If you’re the queasy type, don’t click; just take...
View ArticleHow to mount a penny-farthing
Hello, friends. I’m up against a deadline (Canada Arts Council grant application – my first!), so here’s a fun little instructional on how to mount a penny-farthing bicycle. Bicycles became extremely...
View ArticleMythological maidens
Hello, friends. We were in Ottawa this past weekend and I spent several minutes staring, transfixed, at the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald on Parliament Hill. I had cleverly neglected to bring a...
View ArticleKingston Penitentiary, Part 2
Hello again, friends. Two weeks ago, I wrote about my recent tour of the now-closed Kingston Penitentiary. It was an intense and memorable experience, and today I’d like to round it out with a few more...
View ArticleAfter the Ice Storm
Hello, friends. We made it! The Ice Storm of 2013 is over and it wasn’t nearly as severe or debilitating as some of us expected. In my neighbourhood, we lost power four times over three days, but...
View ArticleLock up your pies!
Hello, friends. I know I said I’d blog this week about the editorial process. But that was before we popped into Barriefield Antiques and I encountered my first-ever pie safe. Yes, that’s right: a...
View ArticleTemples of Convenience
Hello, friends. I have bodily functions on the brain this week. Let’s talk about public toilets, yay! When Nick and I lived in Manchester, many years ago, one of our favourite after-work meeting spots...
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