1934 hotel adverts from the ABC railway guide
In researching my novel, which is set in the mid-1930s, I needed to do some research into train journey times. As any good Agatha Christie fan will know, the AB...
Author: Helen Barrell
How to date a photograph… perhaps
I’m very lucky that so many photos of my relatives have survived. The above is one of my favourites – a family group – and I have been trying ...
The Taylor family album
In July, I went to Somerset to visit my dad, and we ended up in the Smuggler’s Cave in Watchet. There’s all sorts of treasures to be found here R...
Inspector Whicher, Sergeant Cuff, Mr. Holmes, Monsieur Poirot
Yesterday[1]I started to write this on Christie’s birthday, but this behemoth could not be completed in one day. was Agatha Christie’s 124th birthda...
Parish registers in Wilkie Collins’ “The Woman in White”
*contains spoilers* If you’ve ever read The Woman in White, then you’ll know that all the mystery and obfuscation, the swapping of people drugged on...
Things you’ll see in “Ripper Street” series 3. Honest.
Filming has finished on the third series of late-Victorian, plaid-encrusted crime-drama Ripper Street. Huzzah! Herewith, illustrated in 19th century engravings,...
Jack the Ripper DNA test proves… not very much, really
My friend Anna asked me what I think about the DNA testing which apparently “proves” that Aaron Kosminski was the infamous Jack the Ripper. I posted...
Unfortunate ways to die in Beaumont-cum-Moze, 1576-1865
Dying is rather unfortunate anyway, but in Beaumont-cum-Moze, the causes of death are given far more often than they are in other burial registers that I’...
An airy thought….
There I was, opening another marriage register, ready to transcribe, when I spotted something, which took my mind far from the nuptials of the people of Essex, ...
The Sunderland men who came to Essex
Photo by Cindy Lilley. I’ve nearly finished transcribing the baptisms and burials register for Wivenhoe St. Mary the Virgin, 1695-1751. It’s not unu...