From My Blog

Six killer tips to erase time-sucks from your day (for historians)

Oh!  How much more productive I would be if I didn’t waste so much time reading productivity and time management blogs.  You know, the ones with posts listing ‘killer tips’ and recommendations that you keep a time log?  The ones that command you to chart your ‘energy’, use the Pomodoro technique, go to bed earlier,

How I ended up presenting TV (the circuitous answer)

Or, an alternative title could be: ‘how I wanted to learn Latin but ended up with King Alfred (left) instead.’ On Friday night my fellow curators at Historic Royal Palaces and I went out for a cocktail (or 2). We started talking about the hardest jobs we’d ever done. Among my colleagues, I was surprised

A beautiful poem about HISTORY

Here’s a wondrous birthday gift that I received from my talented sister-in-law, Kersti Worsley.  She wrote me a poem about HISTORY. Take your time and read it aloud…   History is the hot breath of time on the back of your neck, History is the empty eye sockets of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, History is the

Why I love Dorothy L. Sayers

The final episode of ‘A Very British Murder’ will be on the goggle box again on Saturday 17th January at 8pm, and it includes my absolute tip-top favourite detective novelist, Dorothy L. Sayers.  I really wanted to make the entire programme about her, but they wouldn’t let me!  So, for my fellow enthusiasts, here’s the

Why I love Sherlock Holmes

On tonight’s ‘A Very British Murder’, we cover a bit of Sherlock Holmes, so here’s my recent article from the Telegraph about how much I love him. Apologies if you’ve read it already, I did tweet the link on New Year’s Day when it came out.  (Oh, and did you know there’s a book to

Holiday conversation chez nous

You may have noticed that members of my family never appear in this blog. That’s at their own request.  Somehow, I don’t know why, they’ve got the idea that if they were to appear JOKES WOULD BE MADE AT THEIR EXPENSE. Anyway, dutifully anonymized, these are various snippets of conversation overheard chez nous from the

Murder behind the scenes

Our BBC series A Very British Murder is back tomorrow night, starting a new run at 8pm on BBC Four.  To get you in the mood, here are some behind-the-scenes photos from when we were making it last year…. Here Matthew Sweet, a very naughty man, and an expert on Wilkie Collins, is administering my first

Jolly Good Fun: Parlour Games of the Past

The long hours of New Year’s Eve stretch ahead of you next week … do you need some ideas for entertaining your family and friends?  If so, check out my article from January’s Period Living magazine!  I think that the magazine itself is just about still on sale, and I can tell you, having a copy

Book review: ‘Tudor: The Family Story’ by Leanda de Lisle.

As soon as this book came out I knew I wanted to read it – and I was glad to have the chance to write a review of it for Country Life magazine… ‘First, I should declare an interest.   I like Henry VIII.  I’m one of the curators at Hampton Court Palace, and whenever he’s

A Victorian alternative to Xmas pudding (includes jelly and ice cream)

The 18th December is coming up, the dreaded day of my fortieth birthday!  What am I doing to celebrate?  Well, on Wednesday evening at 8pm I shall be helping my chum Annie Gray to make Nesselrode Pudding on the Food and Drink Christmas Special on BBC2.  Nesselrode is a very Christmassy creamy jelly with chestnuts, ideally brandy, and