My new book for Thames & Hudson, Bitten By Witch Fever, was chosen by the Huffington Post as one of their eight best history titles of 2016. It traces the story of arsenic in the Victorian home, a poison which was used widely to create vibrant colours for wallpaper, furnishing textiles, clothes and even food … Read more
Listen to my podcast for Guardian Books, talking about arsenic in the Victorian home and my latest book, Bitten By Witch Fever, with Claire Armitstead. It starts at minute 3. https://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2016/dec/23/ruth-padel-and-lucinda-hawksley-books-podcast?CMP=share_btn_fb
I was invited onto BBC Berkshire on New Year’s Day, to talk about my new book “Bitten By Witch Fever” (Thames & Hudson), my interview starts at 1 hour 13 minutes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04ldm2t#play
Vividly coloured wallpaper was the height of fashion for aspirational Victorians – and the cause of countless deaths. On Thursday, April 3 1862, Dr Thomas Orton was summoned to Limehouse, east London. The patient was a gravely ill three-year-old named Ann Amelia Turner and her parents were desperate: over the previous six weeks, Richard Turner, … Read more
My article on Dickens festivals around the world was published by BBC Culture. This December, I shall be back on Galveston Island, Texas, for the 8th year in a row, to attend the Dickens on the Strand festival. Come and say hello if you’ll be there too. http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20141216-why-the-world-loves-dickens?
Tickets are now on sale for my talk on Charles Dickens and his Circle at the Isle of Wight literary festival next month. I’ll be speaking at 4.45pm on Saturday 15 October. http://isleofwightliteraryfestival.com/speaker/lucinda-hawksley/
As my next book will be coming out just before Hallowe’en, it seems suitable that it has the title of Bitten By Witch Fever. It’s about arsenic in the Victorian home, focusing especially on wallpaper. There are many gorgeous wallpapers reproduced in the book, all of which are from the National Archives at Kew – … Read more
One of the most random moments in my life so far was being in a bar in Sri Lanka when my phone went crazy with producers from the BBC trying to contact me. They wanted to tell me the groundbreaking news that Nigel Farage had grown a moustache and to interview me in my capacity … Read more
In 1860, ten years after Charles Dickens published a scathing review of Pre-Raphaelitism in his magazine Household Words, John Everett Millais exhibited what would become one of his most famous paintings. The Black Brunswicker depicts a young Englishwoman making a futile attempt to prevent her Prussian fiancé from fighting in the Battle at Waterloo. For many of the spectators who flocked to … Read more