Category Archives: Hampton Court
A tour of Eliza Rose’s Hampton Court
A lovely spring day at Hampton Court yesterday so out I went with my camera to make a photo tour for you. These are the real places and real things that inspired me when I was writing my story set at the palace, ELIZA ROSE. (Short commercial break warning: you can get your copy here!)
Continue ReadingA year at Hampton Court – in pictures
It’s been a year since I got rid of the photos cluttering up my phone, and so ‘a year in the life of Hampton Court’ seemed like a good topic for a picture post. It’s inevitable, if you work at Hampton Court, that you just can’t stop taking pictures of the place, and then you’re
Continue ReadingWhy I love the Tudors (with a guest appearance by Jean Plaidy)
As everyone STILL seems to be Wolf-Hall-mad, another article from the paper this week, about why I love the Tudors… My most treasured possessions include a battered little paperback, barely held together with sellotape: TheYoung Elizabeth, by Jean Plaidy. Published in 1961, with a cover showing a picture of Hampton Court Palace, it tells the story of the childhood of the future Tudor queen. She’s
Continue ReadingA little article on the history of the codpiece…
… I wrote for a newspaper this week. Hope you enjoy! ‘There is no hidden codpiece memo.’ So says Colin Callendar, executive producer of the upcoming BBC Two drama series Wolf Hall, denying claims that the size of his stars’ codpieces were reduced beyond the point of historical accuracy to avoid offending or baffling an American audience. Actor Damian Lewis did
Continue ReadingA visit to the set of Wolf Hall, and other Tudor drama (including our OWN).
Well, I have been spreading myself about all over the papers today in preparation for the Tudor season about to begin on the BBC. For the Mail, I have written about a visit to the set of the new BBC drama version of Wolf Hall (in which Damian Lewis showed me his codpiece) (ok, calm
Continue ReadingHow to make a Tudor wafer
Well, now for something completely different. Although it’s being shown on the telly at the moment, we actually finished all our work on that dancing series back in the summer, and my mind has moved onto other things. I’ve been busy recently with a new Tudor project. This week I had the pleasure of watching
Continue ReadingTake my Tudor test!
How well do you know your Thomas Wolsey from your Thomas Cromwell, and your Thomas Cranmer from your Thomas More? To find out, take my Tudor test…answers below, along with my assessment of your performance. Question One: An easy one, to warm up. Complete the rhyme: Divorced, Beheaded, Died Divorced, Beheaded … a. Bee-hived b. Alive
Continue ReadingBook 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
Continue ReadingI am jealous of ‘Elizabeth and Her People’ at the NPG
A bit of ruff: meet the middle-class Elizabethans My article from The Times, 28 October 2013 ‘A genteel confrontation is about to take place. No one is going to shout; tea will probably be drunk; it will all be very middle class. I’m at The National Portrait Gallery to see the the new exhibition ‘Elizabeth
Continue ReadingWhat it’s like to live at Hampton Court Palace
Lucy Denyer from The Sunday Times recently interviewed me about my life when I lived at Hampton Court Palace. Here’s the finished result… ‘When I started my job as chief curator of the Historic Royal Palaces in February 2002, I moved down from Scotland and didn’t have anywhere to live, so for a while I
Continue Reading
