Author Archives: dgm

Recently I’ve been reading a Lucy Sussex novel built around the attempt to identify the story around the anonymous author of a newspaper serial published in a local paper in goldrush Australia. Coincident with this, Katherine Bode launched a rediscovered … Continue reading →

The moors round Halifax and Bradford are for ever associated with the Brontes. But there’s also another history there, as for example in the Chartist inspired near insurrection of 1842 sometimes referred to as the Pull Plug riots, which saw soldiers … Continue reading →

I tried to find out what happened to Kate Dickinson after Valentine Baker’s trial for rape and assault, but I’ve drawn a near total blank. Secretly I wanted her to become a campaigner for women’s rights or alternatively one of … Continue reading →

We were in Port Fairy a few days ago and parked outside of the Ederle restaurant, and there it was, an 1870’s short door receiving pillar still in use by Australia Post The design is slightly more ornamental than the … Continue reading →

We’ve just had a few days away at Apollo Bay, originally with the intention of doing some walking, swimming and sketching. Of course, with unerring talent, we neatly managed to coincide with a howling storm that blew up out of … Continue reading →

This week saw the hundredth anniversary of women getting the vote in the UK (and Ireland which in 1918 was not yet a separate polity). It was at best a partial victory in that the vote was restricted to women … Continue reading →

I’m still working away on the Dow’s Pharmacy documentation project, but to be honest the last few weeks have not been that interesting, basically enumerating and classifying the stock of empty unused medicine bottles that had been left behind. However … Continue reading →

While I was researching Valentine Baker’s attack on Rebecca Dickinson, I also came across his obituary. Several obituaries in fact, and all quite hagiographic. Most dealt with his attack on Miss Dickinson by ignoring it as much as possible – … Continue reading →

While reading about Victorian crime and sensationalism I came across a story that you have to put in the “you couldn’t make this up” category. Like all such stories, it has a sordid and dramatic beginning: On the 17th of … Continue reading →

I’ve been reading quite a lot about the Victorian period, and particularly about Victorian crime, newspapers and newspaper reporting as well as reading a number of Victorian sensation novels such as Wilkie Collins’ “Woman in White” and Mary Braddon’s “Lady … Continue reading →