I can't avoid a lingering sense of unease, as if I'm picking history's pocket.

New History Hoydens post up about stealing real events for my fictional characters.

I had a vague recollection of this anecdote…he ran out of ale, so he opened up his expensive French brandy? I couldn’t remember where I’d seen it, but I thought I might have posted it on my blog. After backreading for half an hour, I almost gave up. I don’t need the real anecdote, I thought. It’s fiction. Maybe I can improve on it, make it even better than the real thing.

Then I found the real thing. There is no improving on this. This is perfection. Unless it’s apocryphal and someone’s already improved on it! Who knows? Either way, I covet the glory of this anecdote for myself, and I will take it.

Women's electoral rights

New History Hoydens post up about my upcoming book and women’s pre-1832 electoral rights!

When the vote was based on a property qualification, women who owned qualifying property had an interest in the resulting vote!

It’s not known (yet) if women ever voted directly, but Chalus writes: “Derek Hirst’s work on the seventeenth century has revealed instances of women who believed that they had the right to vote in parliamentary elections, of candidates who tried to poll them, and of election officials who were ready to accept their votes…”