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Home Articles posted by Tessa Boase

Let’s have more statues of women – however controversial

By Tessa Boase | Uncategorized | 0 comment | 28 November, 2019 | 0

‘Mary Wollstonecraft’ by Maggi Hambling. ‘It’s a sculpture about now, in her spirit.’ Statues of women are troubling. Just look at the reaction to the Mary Wollstonecraft statue by Maggi Hambling. ‘Catastrophically wrong,’ cried Caroline Criado-Perez, the prime mover behind the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square; ‘A wet dream of a woman.’ TheRead more

drawing of Emily Williamson

Looking for Emily Williamson, RSPB founder

By Tessa Boase | Uncategorized | 3 comments | 6 November, 2019 | 1

Victorian campaigner Emily Williamson was so incensed by the millinery trade’s use of plumage that she invited her friends to tea ⁠— and persuaded them to sign a pledge to wear no feathers. The all-female group called itself the Society for the Protection of Birds ⁠— “a very ambitious title,” noted The Times, under theRead more

The strange ritual of the Servants’ Christmas Ball

By Tessa Boase | Uncategorized | 0 comment | 29 December, 2018 | 1

Uneasy mingling: the Servants’ Ball at ITV’s Downton Abbey, where Lady Grantham rightly couples Carson, the butler ⁠— and Lord Grantham escorts housekeeper Mrs Hughes Was the Servants’ Ball really so marvellous? It is invoked as an example of the cosy, protective relationship within the English country house between the family and their servants. ButRead more

Winter blues: did servants suffer from SAD?

By Tessa Boase | Uncategorized | 0 comment | 5 December, 2018 | 0

Did servants suffer from SAD ??Seasonal Affective Disorder? The Victorian diaries of Mrs Sarah Wells, housekeeper of Uppark and mother to novelist H. G. Wells, reveal the physical and emotional cost of working in subterranean servant quarters. ?So dark in these underground rooms!? she wrote in 1892, twelve years into an anxious and exhausting tenureRead more

The Seduction of Heather Firbank, Edwardian It Girl

By Tessa Boase | Uncategorized | 12 comments | 19 October, 2018 | 0

A dozen feathered hats, hidden within the fashion archives of the Victorian and Albert Museum, London, were my first introduction to Edwardian fashion addict Heather Firbank. Having viewed the hats ? seductive, stylish, the last word in couture millinery ? I was intrigued to know more about their wearer. And so I made an appointmentRead more

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Recent Posts

  • Let’s have more statues of women – however controversial
  • Looking for Emily Williamson, RSPB founder
  • The strange ritual of the Servants’ Christmas Ball

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From the Blog

  • Let’s have more statues of women – however controversial

    ‘Mary Wollstonecraft’ by Maggi Hambling. ‘It’s a sculpture about now, in her

    28 November, 2019
  • drawing of Emily Williamson

    Looking for Emily Williamson, RSPB founder

    Victorian campaigner Emily Williamson was so incensed by the millinery trade’s use

    6 November, 2019
  • The strange ritual of the Servants’ Christmas Ball

    Uneasy mingling: the Servants’ Ball at ITV’s Downton Abbey, where Lady Grantham

    29 December, 2018
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News & Events

Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 4
Hear all about Etta Lemon, the ‘Margaret Thatcher’ of the birding world. How did this remarkable character hone her campaigning skills, and why was she stabbed in the back by the men who took over the RSPB?

Secrets of the National Trust with Alan Titchmarsh (Channel 5)
Erddig Hall in North Wales was once home to the Yorkes ⁠— a family famously kind to their servants. Or were they? I uncovered the story of ‘thief cook’ Ellen Penketh, jailed in 1907 for allegedly stealing £500 from her insecure mistress Louisa Yorke.

Radio Gorgeous interview with Josephine Pembroke, talking twitchers (why are hardcore birders almost always men?), the mysterious workings of the RSPB (why wouldn’t they let me revisit their archives?) and Mrs Pankhurst’s penchant for fashion (why so many feathered hats?).

SEE ALL NEWS & EVENTS
  • HOME
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    • Mrs. Pankhurst’s Purple Feather
      • Book Overview
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      • Murderous Millinery
      • Suffragettes
    • The Housekeeper’s Tale
      • Book Overview
      • Meet the Housekeepers
  • THE AUTHOR
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  • HOME
  • BOOKS
    • Press
    • Mrs. Pankhurst’s Purple Feather
      • Book Overview
      • Leading Characters
      • Women & Birds
      • Murderous Millinery
      • Suffragettes
    • The Housekeeper’s Tale
      • Book Overview
      • Meet the Housekeepers
  • THE AUTHOR
  • NEWS & EVENTS
  • BLOG
  • CONTACT
Tessa Boase