Tessa BoaseTessa BoaseTessa BoaseTessa Boase
  • 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

Blog

Home Articles posted by Tessa Boase (Page 2)
20 year old Heather in a large, rose-covered hat, soulful eyes

Heather Firbank’s feathered hats

By Tessa Boase | Uncategorized | 0 comment | 18 October, 2018 | 0

I stumbled across Heather Firbank, Edwardian fashion victim, when I made an appointment to view a dozen feathered hats at the Victoria and Albert Museum?s archive centre in Olympia, west London.? I was researching a book on the women who campaigned to save the birds from ?murderous millinery?, and I wanted to understand why theseRead more

The women who campaigned against the Vote

By Tessa Boase | Uncategorized | 0 comment | 3 October, 2018 | 0

When I started researching Margaretta Lemon, co-founder of the all-female RSPB, I assumed that she would be in favour of women?s suffrage. Of course she would! Etta Lemon, Mayoress of Reigate and co-founder of the RSPB This was a woman not afraid to swim against the current. As a girl, Etta was notorious for herRead more

Muriel Matters ? the notorious, hot air ballooning suffragist

By Tessa Boase | Uncategorized | 2 comments | 5 June, 2018 | 2

I?ve written a book about female activism from the desk of a notorious Edwardian activist, Muriel Matters. Daily, I dismount my bicycle and walk through a small arch, hidden between ‘Playland’ amusement arcade and King Fish & Chips, up 20 weathered stone steps, to emerge on the glorious steep curve of Pelham Crescent, overlooking theRead more

10 tips for Downton Abbey

By Tessa Boase | Uncategorized | Comments are Closed | 6 November, 2015 | 0

My only gripe with Downton was that the servants never did any real work. We never got to see housemaids hand-sweeping the state room carpets at 5am, or Daisy on her knees in the kitchen with black-lead paste and three types of scrubbing brush. So please, Mr Fellowes, if you revisit this territory (and weRead more

The real life Daisy Mason ??20th-century rebel Jean Rennie

By Tessa Boase | Uncategorized | 3 comments | 3 October, 2015 | 0

Daisy Mason of TV’s Downton Abbey: opinionated, outspoken and ambitious The wheels at Downton Abbey have cranked forward a year. It is now 1925. And mutinous kitchen maid Daisy Mason ??now assistant cook ??is causing trouble, railing against ?the system?, speaking her mind in places she shouldn?t. Is this credible? Visiting ladies’ maids brought withRead more

1234

Subscribe

Please check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Recent Posts

  • Why we need more statues of women
  • Looking for Emily Williamson, RSPB founder
  • The strange ritual of the Servants’ Christmas Ball

Recent Comments

  • Tessa Boase on Looking for Emily Williamson, RSPB founder
  • Nick Salt on Looking for Emily Williamson, RSPB founder
  • Molly Baer Kramer on Looking for Emily Williamson, RSPB founder

Categories

  • Uncategorized (16)

From the Blog

  • Why we need more statues of women

    ‘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
SEE THE BLOG

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
  • 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
Copyright © 2021 Tessa Boase. All Rights Reserved.
Author Website Design by Outbox Online
  • 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