Useful websites:
British History Online British History Online is the digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. Created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust, it aims to support academic and personal users around the world in their learning, teaching and research.
Scrivener – how did I ever live before I had this software?
Gallica – the Bibliotheque Nationale de France
Wende Museum Life in the Soviet Union and East Germany during the Cold War era.
AltHist Historical fiction and alternate history magazine
Project Gutenberg – ebook library
The Old Bailey Online – Court proceedings archive 1674-1913.
Philippa Gregory addresses the Historical Novel Society. Fact or Fiction? She argued that the historical novel is an art form, based on the author’s selection of facts and the construction of a narrative. Imagination with insight can be a greater truth than the facts which historians have failed to record.
(I disagreed with her statement that, pre-1920, all history was recorded by men. One of my favourite periods, Baroque France, lives on in the memoirs and letters of Mme de Sevigné, Ninon de L’Enclos, Louise Elisabeth d’Orléans, Mme de Maintenon, and Mme de Staal.) Otherwise, a brilliant and inspiring lecture.
Sadly, the video of this keynote speech has now been blocked on the internet by an organisation called ‘mbn’ due to ‘copyright’ issues.
David Vann on short stories
William Shunn – Manuscript Format
Post-it Fiction – write short fiction on a Post-it note and upload a photo of it.
Mslexia magazine ‘for women who write’ – I think male writers might want to read this.
102 Resources for Fiction Writers
Harvard Referencing Generator – for compiling those pesky OU bibliographies
Improve Your Writing by the University of Bristol. Spot pleonasms and comma splices every time.
Booktrust – includes a listing of short story competitions
Archetype: the Fiction Writer’s Guide to Psychology
Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society Ltd.
University of Warwick TUC Archive of the Spanish Civil War (never know when it may come in handy)
Literary Rejections – see what happened to the Da Vinci Code, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, The Spy who came in from the Cold, and others!
The Map of Early Modern London – An interactive map of Shakespeare’s London