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the facts behind the fiction
Writing historical fiction involves a lot of research which informs the novel but is not necessarily included in it. This blog is for sharing some of the fun and interesting facts I came across while researching my novels.
Mental Illness and Asylums: What Was Life Really Like Inside?
In Victorian England, a woman could be sent to an asylum for having children out of wedlock. The real history of institutions like Chartham
Childbirth in the Early 20th Century: Midwives, Dangers and Pain Relief
Before antibiotics, childbirth was one of Britain's biggest killers. The real history of midwives, doctors and pain relief in the early 1900s.
Shell Shock: The Hidden Wounds of War, from the Boer War to the Trenches
Before PTSD was a diagnosis, WW1 soldiers with shell-shock faced ridicule, execution, or pioneering new treatments. The real history behind the condition.
The Spanish Flu of 1918: History, Symptoms and Lessons for the Covid Era
The 1918 flu killed more people than WW1, yet it wasn't from Spain and left no vaccines behind. The real story of history's deadliest pandemic.
Living with Illness a Century Ago: Stomach Flu, Brain Fever and Polio
Before the vaccine, polio left lifelong disabilities. A look at polio, meningitis and stomach flu in early 20th-century Britain, and how they were treated.
Brain Tumours, Measles and Consumption: Illness in The Papermaker's Daughter
Tuberculosis claimed Keats, Chopin and the Brontës. In the novel, it takes Ed too. The real history of TB, brain tumours and measles in the early 1900s.
Disease, Illness and Death in the Papermaker’s Daughter: Childbed Fever, Ulcers and Lung Cancer
The Papermaker's Daughter opens with a mother dying of childbed fever. The real Victorian medicine behind that scene, plus two more illnesses from the story.
