#ii. vanity — elizabeth young

[houseofbrat]

12 JULY 2024: William plays polo at a charity match. Kate and the children do not attend.

William confirms he will attend the Euro final on Sunday, 14 July 2024.

13 JULY 2024: Kate confirms she will attend the men's final at Wimbledon.

14 JULY 2024: Kate attends the Wimbledon men's final with Charlotte and Pippa.

William attends the Euro final with George to watch England lose to Spain.

15 JULY 2024: Katie Nicholl, Vanity Fair, "Kate Middleton Is Now “On Summer Break” After Wimbledon Appearance" [archive link]

Kate Middleton’s appearance at Wimbledon on Sunday delighted tennis and royal fans, but it may be some time before we see Kate in public again. According to royal sources, Prince William and Princess Kate are planning to spend most of the summer “below the radar” at their Norfolk bolthole now that Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are out of school and Kate continues her course of preventative chemotherapy. While Kensington Palace would not give details on the family’s plans for the summer, a royal source confirmed that the Wales family are now “on summer break.” Sources close to the family say that although they will not be traveling abroad this summer while Kate undergoes treatment, they are excited to visit King Charles and Queen Camilla in Scotland next month. Sunday’s appearance at Wimbledon is likely to be Kate’s last official engagement until later this year.

16 JULY 2024: Will & Kate are looking to hire a new Assistant Private Secretary that can speak "conversational Welsh." [archive link]

Although the new hire would be responsible for Prince William and Catherine's public engagements in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the future King and Queen want their new Assistant Private Secretary to specifically focus on Wales and believe it is "essential" that they speak conversational Welsh. [...] Almost two years after taking on their Wales titles, and after a testing year so far with The Princess' major abdominal surgery and cancer diagnosis, it appears Prince William and Catherine are driving forward with their plans, seeking "specific expertise on Welsh communities, affairs, government, and business". Handled by the largest executive search firm in the United Kingdom, Odgers Berndtson has posted a job advert for an Assistant Private Secretary ("APS"), Wales & UK on behalf of Kensington Palace.

18 JULY 2024: The attempted Donald Trump assassin had searched for images of Kate according to investigation.

23 JULY 2024: William announces more patronages. Kate does not announce any new patronages.

24 JULY 2024: Victoria Ward, The Telegraph, "Prince William refuses to reveal how much tax he pays." [archive link]

The Prince of Wales has chosen not to reveal how much tax he pays on the private income he receives from his vast property portfolio, marking a notable change in approach from when his father was heir to the throne. Prince William’s Duchy of Cornwall estate, the billion-pound business empire he inherited on the death of his grandmother, Elizabeth II, generated profits of £23.6 million in the last financial year. He is understood to pay income tax on the full amount, less household costs, which have also not been disclosed.

26 JULY 2024: Robert Jobson's book excerpt in The Daily Mail, "How the Queen and Charles clashed with William after he refused to stop flying his young family around Britain in his helicopter." [archive link]

One courtier explained: 'The King's relationship with both his sons has been difficult over the years. Even now he is King, with the Prince of Wales, there can be differences of opinion and tensions. Of course, they love each other, but they clash, and sometimes William needs handling with kid gloves.' Another courtier confirmed: 'You have to check first which way the wind is blowing with the prince. They don't see eye to eye on several issues, but why should they? [Prince William's] moment in the top job will come — perhaps he would do well to remember it is not yet. This is His Majesty's time.' When he loses his temper, William is a bit of a shouter — and his father tends to give as good as he gets. The difference these days is that their arguments usually blow over quite quickly. One recent source of disagreement is William's stubborn refusal to take his father's advice on safeguarding the succession. Earlier this year, the King had raised concerns with his son about the wisdom of William using his helicopter to fly his entire family around the country.

27 JULY 2024: People magazine (US), "Prince William and King Charles Clashed Over Use of Helicopter for Kate Middleton and Their Children, New Book Claims". [archive link]

According to Robert Jobson's soon-to-be-released biography, Catherine, The Princess of Wales, the King, 75, “raised concerns” with William, 42, over his helicopter use with Kate Middleton and their children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, that sparked a tense disagreement between the pair.  In an excerpt from Jobson’s book, per The Daily Mail, King Charles brought up his worries on the matter after coming to terms with his mortality following his cancer diagnosis, which was announced in February. The King even presented experienced pilot William with “a formal document acknowledging the risks involved and taking full responsibility for his actions” amid their dispute, the new book claims.   Charles’ concerns echoed that of his late mother Queen Elizabeth, who previously requested William not fly with his family on a helicopter from Kensington Palace to his former residence of Anmer Hall in Norfolk, which is a 115-mile journey, according to Robson.  [...] It is also understood that the palace has fully evaluated the risk of the family flying together, compared with implementing a policy where separate travel assets are provided for one or more members of The Prince and Princess of Wales’ family.

30 JULY 2024: The Prince's Trust announces the date for its annual Christmas Carol concert, 09 December 2024.

Hilary Rose, The Times, posts an article about William van Cutsem, friend of Prince William and recently appointed as an adviser to the Duchy of Cornwall. [archive link]

The Earthshot Prize tweets about their third annual Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit, which mentions no commitment by William to attend.

03 AUGUST 2024: Daily Mail's Natasha Livingstone

07 AUGUST 2024: Tom Sykes, The Daily Beast, "Princess Kate Will Focus on Her Kids After ‘Brush With Mortality’: Sources" [archive link]

It is thought the smaller Wales family are unlikely to travel this year to Tresco, a small island off the coast of Cornwall, where they have often spent summer holidays. However, The Daily Beast has been told that the couple are aiming to be in Balmoral either for the opening of the grouse-shooting season on Aug. 12 or shortly thereafter. William and Kate both shoot. One friend of the couple told The Daily Beast: “Kate has been exceptionally open and honest about her health. Making two appearances before the summer break, at Wimbledon and Trooping the Colour, was a clear signal that she is doing well. That is what we are hearing privately as well—it’s not over but there is lots of optimism, lots of positivity.” [...] Another source, a Buckingham Palace insider, said they understood there was no sense that Kate was expected to be back on duty for the traditionally busy period of royal engagements that kicks off in the first week of September and runs through to Christmas.

11 AUGUST 2024: William & Kate appear for less than ten seconds in a video message for Team GB with multiple celebrity appearances, after the end of the Olympics.

13 AUGUST 2024: Lucie Heath writes about the Duchy of Cornwall.

The Duchy of Cornwall’s largest single landholding is 27,300 hectares on Dartmoor, which accounts for approximately one third of the National Park. Last year the Government published an independent review of Dartmoor, which concluded the landscape was “not in a good state”. Dr Alexander Lees, a biodiversity expert at Manchester Metropolitan University, said the Duchy of Cornwall has a big part to play in turning things around at Dartmoor and other sites it owns. “As one of Britain’s biggest landowners, the Duchy of Cornwall is in a position of strength to combat the entwined biodiversity and climate crises. However, massive additional investment in conservation is needed across these landholdings,” he said. Dr Lee said: “clearly there is a need to generate income to leverage restoration and rewilding across the estate”, but added it is “questionable” that some of this income comes from a car dealership when the Duchy has promoted reduced car use through its flagship Poundbury housing estate in Dorset.

14 AUGUST 2024: Rebecca English, Daily Mail, "Why Kate's year has been tougher than anyone realises - and why she's starting to glow again." [archive link]

What most will not appreciate is that Catherine had actually been unwell for some time in the run up to her initial abdominal surgery in January (further details of which have not been made public yet by Kensington Palace). It was only after that ‘planned’ operation, of course, which left her in hospital for two weeks, that her cancer was discovered.

The Daily Beast rehashes the "exclusives" from the Daily Mail.

16 AUGUST 2024: Dan Wootton reiterates that Kate may "NEVER" return to full-time royal duties.

Tusk Trust CEO says William wants to introduce his children to Africa.

"He is very knowledgeable and passionate about conservation and the environment,” Mayhew said. “He has a particular love for Africa. He has been incredibly supportive as our patron and proactive in supporting us. We find ourselves incredibly lucky.” Mayhew plans to meet up with Prince William in Cape Town, South Africa, when the Prince of Wales hosts the fourth annual Earthshot Prize Awards there in November. Soon enough, the Prince of Wales will want to introduce his three children — Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis — to the continent, Mayhew said. “I think it won’t be long before, you know, he will want to introduce them to Africa,” he said.

17 AUGUST 2024: Natasha Anderson, Daily Mail, reports on how Will, Kate, George, Charlotte, and Louis, spent the day at a large Nerf battle. [archive link]

The Royal family had a bit of a rumble last weekend as the Prince and Princess of Wales faced off against their children in a Nerf battle. Prince George, 11, Princes Charlotte, nine, and six-year-old Prince Louis joined in the festivities at the Gone Wild Festival at Holkham Hall, Norfolk for a high-intensity Nerf war with toy guns and smoke bombs. Excitable and 'unforgettable' Louis ran around yelling 'Nerf or nothing, let's do this!', according to Norfolk Nerf Parties boss Georgina Barron. The Princess of Wales, who has been battling cancer, even 'grabbed a Nerf gun, ran around, and played stuck in the mud with her kids', Ms Barron added, noting that hosting the family was the 'biggest honour' and 'unforgettable'. Ms Barron said the royals, who were not photographed at the event, had wanted to enjoy a 'wholesome family day like any other normal family'. Kensington Palace has been approached for comment. 

19 AUGUST 2024: People magazine (US), story about who's who in the Middleton family.

The Mirror, "Kate Middleton's 'tough' side and unlikely inspiration for 'ambitious' plans" [archive link]

The Princess of Wales has rapidly ascended the Royal ranks, becoming a favourite among the Royal Family due to her sense of humour and evident respect for her role. Even during her cancer treatment, she has displayed nothing but strength and determination. Kate, once shy and reserved, has transformed into a confident, playful, and occasionally assertive figure, commanding as much public respect as King Charles or Prince William could ever wish for. This trust that the King places in his "darling daughter-in-law" reportedly leads to her frequently being asked for her opinion due to her relatability.

20 AUGUST 2024: "Princess Charlotte, Lady Louise and the Duchess of Edinburgh go on special trip" [archive link]

Princess Charlotte, Lady Louise and Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh went on a special shopping trip in London, according to a source. Charlotte has a good relationship with her great-aunt and the two royals were joined by Sophie's daughter Louise during a trip to Chelsea. The royals headed to the Peter Jones store on King's Road which is said to be one of Charlotte's favourite stores. A source told The Sun: "There is a really warm connection between Sophie and her great-niece, which is very touching."

21 AUGUST 2024: Tom Sykes, The Daily Beast, "Princes William and Harry May Only Reunite at King Charles’ Funeral: Source" [archive link]

Asked about the reports that Harry would not be invited to William’s coronation, the source said: “I believe it 100 percent. Why would William and Kate want all the distraction and circus that his presence would bring? I suspect that William will see Harry one more time in his life in the flesh—at their father’s funeral.” A former Buckingham Palace staffer told The Daily Beast: “Planning for William’s coronation is well underway, and as I understand it there are no plans to invite Harry. It’s hardly surprising when you look at how poisoned the well has become.”

US Weekly (USA) has cover story on William & Camilla, with sourcing from Christopher Andersen's book.

23 AUGUST 2024: People magazine (US), "Prince William's Return to Work Plans Revealed After Summer Break with Kate Middleton and Their Kids" [archive link]

On Aug. 22, Kensington Palace announced that the Prince of Wales, 42, will visit the Homelessness: Reframed exhibit at the Saatchi Gallery in London on Sept. 5. The display highlights the complexities of homelessness across the U.K. and offers the public an opportunity to better understand the stories of individuals who have been affected. Homelessness: Reframed is a collaboration between Prince William's Homewards program, which he launched with the Royal Foundation in June 2023 to help end homelessness for good, the Saatchi Gallery and the Eleven Eleven Foundation. The presentation opened on Aug. 7, and Prince William will visit before it closes on Sept. 20.

25 AUGUST 2024: Kate seen in a car on the way to church 'at Crathie Kirk, Balmoral, Scotland.

Daily Mail, "Inside Kate's slow and steady return to public life: How the Princess of Wales has won over the nation's hearts with appearances at Trooping the Colour, Wimbledon and Crathie Kirk following cancer diagnosis" [archive link]

Her appearance had been in doubt after she missed the final Trooping rehearsal the weekend prior to the celebration, with confirmation that she would attend only given at 6pm the evening before.  [...] And now, Kate has been seen in public for the third time since revealing that she has cancer - just two weeks after her video message praising Team GB.  The royal appeared in high spirits as she was pictured arriving for Sunday service with her husband William at Crathie Kirk today.  William drove the car, smiling as he chatted with his wife and opting for a navy blue suit for the occasion.  The Princess sported the same hat she donned last year for a Sunday church service, when she donned a beige tartan Marlborough trench coat from Holland Cooper with  dark brown wool felt fedora with feathers.

28 AUGUST 2024: The Daily Mail's royal editor, Rebecca English, confirms that William "never planned to" attend the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit in September 2024.

29 AUGUST 2024: Matt Wilkinson, The Sun, reports that both William and Harry attended their uncle's funeral in Norfolk, "Warring Prince William and Harry REUNITE at their uncle’s funeral after Duke of Sussex makes secret dash to UK" [archive link]

The Duke of Sussex, 39, flew from his US home to join his brother, 42, at the service for Lord Robert Fellowes. A local in Snettisham, Norfolk, said: “We never saw them speak to each other and they kept their distance.” The princes both “discreetly” attended the funeral for Lord Fellowes — who was their mother Diana’s brother-in-law. They were said to have kept their distance from each other and sat at the back of the church. Sources close to US-based Harry had previously claimed he would not attend. But a close family friend said they were “very happy to confirm both princes were there”. Another source told how they only saw them at the end of the service at St Mary’s Church. They said: “I didn’t know they were there. They arrived very discreetly.” One local said: “William and Harry were both there but we never saw them speak to each other and they were keeping their distance.”

TIMELINE:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

[jaeausten]

Hi Everyone!

This post is for anyone wanting to request a gifset. Below the cut is a list of all films and tv shows that I am able to produce an gifset for.

Pre Medieval:

Vikings 1-4a.

Tristan and Isolde.

Rome (HBO) 1-2

Cleopatra (1963).

Medieval:

The Hollow Crown 1-2.

A Knight's Tale.

Robin Hood (BBC) 1-3.

Ophelia (2018).

Ever After- A Cinderella Story.

The White Queen.

Braveheart.

Tudor: (If requested on here, I will actually post the request on tudorerasource, but will answer the ask on this blog with a link.)

The White Princess.

The Spanish Princess 1-2.

The Other Boleyn Girl.

Anne of the Thousand Days.

The Tudors 1-4.

Wolf Hall.

Lady Jane.

Elizabeth R.

Shakespeare in Love.

Anonymous.

Mary Queen of Scots (2013).

Mary Queen of Scots (2017).

Elizabeth I (2005).

The Virgin Queen.

Elizabeth.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

Stuart:

The Favourite.

Tulip Fever.

The Three Musketeers (2012).

The Musketeers (BBC) 1-3.

Stage Beauty.

Charles II: The Power and the Passion.

Georgian:

Harlots 1-3.

Pirates of the Caribbean 1-4.

Poldark 1-5.

The Scandalous Lady W.

Belle.

The Affair of the Necklace.

The Duchess.

The Abduction Club.

The Aristocrats (BBC).

Casanova.

Marie Antoinette.

The History of Tom Jones.

Dangerous Liaisons.

The Madness of King George.

Amadeus.

Outlander 1-5.

Regency:

Becoming Jane.

Miss Austen Regret's.

War and Peace (2015).

Mr Malcom's List.

Vanity Fair (2005).

Vanity Fair (BBC) (2005).

Jane Austen:

Pride and Prejudice (1995)

Pride and Prejudice (2005).

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Mansfield Park (1999).

Mansfield Park (2007).

Emma (1996).

Emma (BBC) (1996).

Emma (2009).

Emma (2020).

Persuasion (1995).

Persuasion (2007).

Sense and Sensibility (1995).

Sense and Sensibility (2008).

Northanger Abbey (2007).

Sanditon 1.

Love and Friendship.

Death comes to Pemberley.

Lost in Austen.

Victorian:

The Young Victoria.

Victoria 1-3.

The Count of Monte Cristo.

Little Dorrit.

Wives and Daughters.

To Walk Invisible.

Gentleman Jack 1-2.

Cranford.

Return to Cranford.

Jane Eyre (2007).

Jane Eyre (2001).

Little Women (1994).

Little Women (20019).

North and South.

Crimson Peak.

Bleak House (2006).

The Age of Innocence.

Far from the Madding Crowd.

The Phantom of the Opera.

Anna Karenina.

The Gilded Age 1.

Dr Thorne.

Edwardian:

Somewhere in Time.

The Secret Garden (1993).

A Room with a View.

Miss Potter.

Titanic.

Colette.

Anne of Green Gables Trilogy (1985-2000).

My Fair Lady.

20th Century/Modern/Everything Else:

Austenland.

A discovery of Witches 1-3.

Merlin 1-4.

Me before You.

Letters to Juliet.

The Da Vinci Code.

Angels and Demons.

Cinderella (2015).

Beauty and the Beast (2017).

Stardust.

Dracula (NBC) (2013).

Maleficent.

The Sound of Music.

[somkieth]

Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz is a renowned American portrait photographer known for her unique style and ability to capture captivating images of celebrities, public figures, and everyday people. She has worked for leading magazines such as Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, and has photographed notable figures such as John Lennon, Queen Elizabeth II, and Barack Obama. Leibovitz's work has been praised for its artistic quality and her unique approach to storytelling.

Annie Leibovitz is known for her unique, individual and distinctive celebrity portraits. She has left an indelible mark on the world of photography. Her ability to capture the essence of her subjects in a single frame is unparalleled, and her unique style has made her one of the most sought-after photographers in the industry.

Born with an eye for detail and a talent for telling stories through her own lens, she discovered her passion for photography at a young age. Armed with a camera and a vision, she set out to capture the world around her in a way that was both striking and intimate.

Throughout her career, Annie has worked with many figures in entertainment, politics and culture, from Hollywood royalty to world leaders. Each portrait she creates is a masterpiece in its own right, demonstrating her unique ability to capture the personality and emotion of her subjects.

Annie’s style is marked by meticulous staging, excellent lighting and the use of vibrant colors to create beautiful and captivating images. Her photographs are not just photographs, they are windows into the souls of the people she photographs, revealing raw and unadorned perspectives of some of the most influential people of our time.

Every time she snaps her camera, Annie Leibovitz continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in the world of photography. Her work is bold, bold and undeniably powerful, cementing her legacy as a true visionary in the art of portraiture.

Annie Leibovitz’s captivating photographic style is a testament to her talent, skill, and creative vision as a photographer. With her unique approach to portraiture, Leibovitz redefined the art of photography, creating images that are not only visually stunning, but also emotionally charged. Her ability to connect with her subjects and capture their essence is what makes her work so powerful and enduring. Annie Leibovitz is a true master of her craft, and her legacy as one of the greatest portrait photographers of all time is well-deserved.

[tillywhim]

Well, That Didn't Last Long

Ok, first things first, I'm playing serious catch up here so you'll have to bear with me if I'm covering things that are in the dim and distant past for you all now. As you know I had one heck of a time trying to regain access to my account then, when I finally did get it back, I caught the flu so have been laid up with that for the past few days. I'm just going to go over the things that have happened as they occur to me and give you my take on them. Here goes:

Yes, no sooner had they landed back in sunny Montecito and heard the news and seen the subsequent portrait of the royal quartet, Our Lady of Perpetual Victimhood shot back with an image of herself and husband Saint Henry of the Wounded Ego taken during their soiree into Manchester for her appearance as the keynote speaker at the One Young World Charity. I'm not a computer whizz but the doctored images doing the rounds are a hoot and well worth a look. I'm sure their "friend" photographer Misan Harriman who took this and other heavily photoshopped (tree of life anyone?) images of the couple would approve. Since the release of the above portrait, it seems that the "charity" which calls itself a "global forum for young leaders" is being investigated for paying Kate Robertson and her daughter Ella McKay almost £2 million in 5 years, some of it during the lockdown periods of Covid when no summits were being held. The Charity Commission is investigating remuneration packages for senior management personnel at One Young World and, although I may be allowing bias to take precedence, looking at the pair in charge, I can only say, why didn't happen sooner. I should point out, there is no suggestion of any impropriety from the Harkles or any celebrities associated with the "charity". One Young World, Markled it would seem. However, back to the point of the photo, it was a knee-jerk reaction to release it when and how she did. It was a fuck you, we're still royal or at least one of us is and we're not going to let you forget it. What it has served to do, is to remind everyone just how bitter Ms Markle can be.

Katie "I saw Him First" Nicholl has a new book out, "The New Royals" and is desperate to plug it and get as many sales as possible. To that end, and with no context whatsoever, she "let slip" a story about Prince George supposedly telling another child at school during a bit of toing and froing "watch out, my dad's going to be king". This opines Katie, makes young George a bit of a brat. The twittersphere went crazy, tumblr went mental, social medias everywhere went into meltdown and poor old Katiekins felt the need to defend herself saying her words had been "taken out of context". Yah think Katie? Would that be because you didn't give them any context? As many of you know, Katie works for Vanity Fair, she very often seems to be a fair minded, even handed, intelligent human being. However, when her mask slips as it did in this instance, you see her for what she is, a mean girl interested only in fame and making money using someone else's name. Remind you of anyone?

Archetypes with Meghan is back *shudder* after a short break following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. This time round, our girl was discussing the stereotyping (someone really should explain the meaning of both words and the differences between the 2 to her) of Asian women in film. By Asian women, Meghan was referring solely to Chinese, Korean and Japanese and possibly Thai, completely ignoring Indian, Pakistani, Israeli, Iranian, Turkish, Lebanese, Sri Lankan, Syrian, Bahrainian and Cambodian to name just some of the 48 countries not including dependencies which make up the continent of Asia. Is her racism showing again? Anyway, this time round, before her guests, Margaret Cho ( Korean-American Comedienne, Actress and Activist) and Lisa Ling (Taiwanese-American journalist, author and television presenter) were given the chance to talk about themselves (and Margaret has had a pretty interesting life, she's a survivor of familial sexual abuse, dated Quentin Tarantino and was openly bi-sexual at a time when it was frowned upon by everyone!) everyone had to endure the thrilling installment of how Doria used to take Flower to the Korean Spa and all these naked women from 9 to 90 would be wandering round waiting for their treatments. Now, all you internet detectives worked out that she had lifted this from a kids cartoon show called Big Mouth (plagiarism is as plagiarism does) but what interested me was did she say what year this was because we know that Doria dropped out of her life for at least 10 years. She did say she was hitting puberty so if our maths is correct, she was definitely with Thomas then and if rumours are to be believed, Doria was incarcerated. Even if she hadn't copied the story from a show she's probably caught one morning, things just don't add up. One minute they're saving up to go eat at a Sizzler and the next Doria is taking them both to a Korean Spa for the works? It's like Judge Judy says "if you tell the truth, you don't need to have a good memory". The best thing about all of this, they've employed a fact checker. On her show. This really tickles me. That girl is going to be so busy, she won't know if she is coming or going and I think she will have a very hard time separating the truth from fiction when it comes to Ms Markle because she has told that many different versions of "her truth" over the years.

Harry has a new Law Suit. It must be Thursday. Yep, Harry, Elton John, David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost and, most notably, Baroness Lawrence have all filed suit against ANL with allegations including the planting of listening devices, paying officials and accessing bank accounts. The accusations listed by the Duke's solicitor's Hamlins LLP alleges the following: The hiring of private investigators to secretly place listening devices inside people’s cars and homes’; ‘The commissioning of individuals to surreptitiously listen into and record people’s live, private telephone calls whilst they were taking place’; ‘The payment of police officials, with corrupt links to private investigators, for inside, sensitive information’; ‘The impersonation of individuals to obtain medical information from private hospitals, clinics, and treatment centres by deception’; and ‘The accessing of bank accounts, credit histories and financial transactions through illicit means and manipulation.

As we all know, Harry does not handle the press well at the best of times and unlike his brother, has been unable to build any sort of working relationship with them (unlike his wife). To him, they will always be the enemy, they will always be the reason his beloved mother died. He and William were both "hacked" by the Sun newspaper group back in the day and what is happening now has echoes of that. Even if ANL is innocent of everything they are being accused of, in Harry's eyes they will always be guilty. I think this is one of the main reasons he has them in his sights as often as he does. I doubt winning the cases matters to him, he just wants to cause them as much upset and distress as he can.

On a lighter and brighter note, after their visit to Wales where they were a resounding success, the new Prince and Princess of Wales made a surprise visit to Northern Ireland.

Catherine seemed to be gifted ALL the flowers, she deserves them, she does, I just hope she had enough people on hand to help her carry them. The pair had fun competing to see who made the best cocktail in the quickest time, Catherine won (natch), I hope they got to drink them, especially Catherine after being accosted by the lady in the crowd telling her it would have been nicer if she was visiting when Ireland belonged to the Irish. Didn't she handle it well, a quick smile and then on to the next person, my message to the lady in question, wait until the politicians are in town and take it up with them. I should say they started their day at PIPS which provides crisis support for people at risk of suicide or self-harm (think they definitely earned those cocktails).

William got accosted by a pair of cocker spaniels who really, really, really wanted him to know what good boys and girls they were.

The last visit of the day was to Carrick Connect and Catherine got to hold another baby (William was smiling but was he also looking a bit worried at that gleam in her eye?)..

That's it from me. I will try to post more. I'm still battling the flu and trying to catch up with everything I've missed from everyone's blogs. Oodles of love, Tilly

[nellygwyn]

BOOK RECS

Okay, so lots of people wanted this and so, I am compiling a list of my favourite books (both fiction and non-fiction), books that I recommend you read as soon as humanly possible. In the meantime, I’ll be pinning this post to the top of my blog (once I work out how to do that lmao) so it will be accessible for old and new followers. I’m going to order this list thematically, I think, just to keep everything tidy and orderly. Of course, a lot of this list will consist of historical fiction and historical non-fiction because that’s what I read primarily and thus, that’s where my bias is, but I promise to try and spice it up just a little bit. 

Favourite fiction books of all time:

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock // Imogen Hermes Gowar

Sense and Sensibility // Jane Austen

Slammerkin // Emma Donoghue 

Remarkable Creatures // Tracy Chevalier

Life Mask // Emma Donoghue

His Dark Materials // Philip Pullman (this includes the follow-up series The Book of Dust)

Emma // Jane Austen

The Miniaturist // Jessie Burton

Girl, Woman, Other // Bernadine Evaristo 

Jane Eyre // Charlotte Brontë

Persuasion // Jane Austen

Girl with a Pearl Earring // Tracy Chevalier

The Silent Companions // Laura Purcell

Tess of the d’Urbervilles // Thomas Hardy

Northanger Abbey // Jane Austen

The Chronicles of Narnia // C.S. Lewis

Pride and Prejudice // Jane Austen

Goodnight, Mr Tom // Michelle Magorian

The French Lieutenant’s Woman // John Fowles 

The Butcher’s Hook // Janet Ellis 

Mansfield Park // Jane Austen

The All Souls Trilogy // Deborah Harkness

The Railway Children // Edith Nesbit

Favourite non-fiction books of all time

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman // Robert Massie

Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King // Antonia Fraser

Madame de Pompadour // Nancy Mitford

The First Iron Lady: A Life of Caroline of Ansbach // Matthew Dennison 

Black and British: A Forgotten History // David Olusoga

Courtiers: The Secret History of the Georgian Court // Lucy Worsley 

Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Katherine Howard, the Fifth Wife of Henry VIII // Gareth Russell

King Charles II // Antonia Fraser

Casanova’s Women // Judith Summers

Marie Antoinette: The Journey // Antonia Fraser

Mrs. Jordan’s Profession: The Story of a Great Actress and a Future King // Claire Tomalin

Jane Austen at Home // Lucy Worsley

Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames // Lara Maiklem

The Last Royal Rebel: The Life and Death of James, Duke of Monmouth // Anna Keay

The Marlboroughs: John and Sarah Churchill // Christopher Hibbert

Nell Gwynn: A Biography // Charles Beauclerk

Jurassic Mary: Mary Anning and the Primeval Monsters // Patricia Pierce

Georgian London: Into the Streets // Lucy Inglis

The Prince Who Would Be King: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart // Sarah Fraser

Wedlock: How Georgian Britain’s Worst Husband Met His Match // Wendy Moore

Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from the Stone Age to the Silver Screen // Greg Jenner

Victorians Undone: Tales of the Flesh in the Age of Decorum // Kathryn Hughes

Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey // Nicola Tallis

Favourite books about the history of sex and/or sex work

The Origins of Sex: A History of First Sexual Revolution // Faramerz Dabhoiwala 

Erotic Exchanges: The World of Elite Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century Paris // Nina Kushner

Peg Plunkett: Memoirs of a Whore // Julie Peakman

Courtesans // Katie Hickman

The Other Victorians: A Study of Sexuality and Pornography in mid-Nineteenth Century England

Madams, Bawds, and Brothel Keepers // Fergus Linnane

The Secret History of Georgian London: How the Wages of Sin Shaped the Capital // Dan Cruickshank 

A Curious History of Sex // Kate Lister

Sex and Punishment: 4000 Years of Judging Desire // Eric Berkowitz

Queen of the Courtesans: Fanny Murray // Barbara White

Rent Boys: A History from Ancient Times to Present // Michael Hone

Celeste // Roland Perry

Sex and the Gender Revolution // Randolph Trumbach

The Pleasure’s All Mine: A History of Perverse Sex // Julie Peakman

LGBT+ fiction I love*

The Confessions of the Fox // Jordy Rosenberg 

As Meat Loves Salt // Maria Mccann

Bone China // Laura Purcell

Brideshead Revisited // Evelyn Waugh

The Confessions of Frannie Langton // Sara Collins

The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle // Neil Blackmore

Orlando // Virginia Woolf

Tipping the Velvet // Sarah Waters

She Rises // Kate Worsley

The Mercies // Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Oranges are Not the Only Fruit // Jeanette Winterson

Maurice // E.M Forster

Frankisstein: A Love Story // Jeanette Winterson

If I Was Your Girl // Meredith Russo 

The Well of Loneliness // Radclyffe Hall 

* fyi, Life Mask and Girl, Woman, Other are also LGBT+ fiction

Classics I haven’t already mentioned (including children’s classics)

Far From the Madding Crowd // Thomas Hardy 

I Capture the Castle // Dodie Smith 

Vanity Fair // William Makepeace Thackeray 

Wuthering Heights // Emily Brontë

The Blazing World // Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle

Murder on the Orient Express // Agatha Christie 

Great Expectations // Charles Dickens

North and South // Elizabeth Gaskell

Evelina // Frances Burney

Death on the Nile // Agatha Christie

The Monk // Matthew Lewis

Frankenstein // Mary Shelley

Vilette // Charlotte Brontë

The Mayor of Casterbridge // Thomas Hardy

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall // Anne Brontë

Vile Bodies // Evelyn Waugh

Beloved // Toni Morrison 

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd // Agatha Christie

The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling // Henry Fielding

A Room With a View // E.M. Forster

Silas Marner // George Eliot 

Jude the Obscure // Thomas Hardy

My Man Jeeves // P.G. Wodehouse

Lady Audley’s Secret // Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Middlemarch // George Eliot

Little Women // Louisa May Alcott

Children of the New Forest // Frederick Marryat

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings // Maya Angelou 

Rebecca // Daphne du Maurier

Alice in Wonderland // Lewis Carroll

The Wind in the Willows // Kenneth Grahame

Anna Karenina // Leo Tolstoy

Howard’s End // E.M. Forster

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 // Sue Townsend

Even more fiction recommendations

The Darling Strumpet // Gillian Bagwell

The Wolf Hall trilogy // Hilary Mantel

The Illumination of Ursula Flight // Anne-Marie Crowhurst

Queenie // Candace Carty-Williams

Forever Amber // Kathleen Winsor

The Corset // Laura Purcell

Love in Colour // Bolu Babalola

Artemisia // Alexandra Lapierre

Blackberry and Wild Rose // Sonia Velton

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories // Angela Carter

The Languedoc trilogy // Kate Mosse

Longbourn // Jo Baker

A Skinful of Shadows // Frances Hardinge

The Black Moth // Georgette Heyer

The Far Pavilions // M.M Kaye

The Essex Serpent // Sarah Perry

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo // Taylor Jenkins Reid

Cavalier Queen // Fiona Mountain 

The Winter Palace // Eva Stachniak

Friday’s Child // Georgette Heyer

Falling Angels // Tracy Chevalier

Little // Edward Carey

Chocolat // Joanne Harris 

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street // Natasha Pulley 

My Sister, the Serial Killer // Oyinkan Braithwaite

The Convenient Marriage // Georgette Heyer

Katie Mulholland // Catherine Cookson

Restoration // Rose Tremain

Meat Market // Juno Dawson

Lady on the Coin // Margaret Campbell Bowes

In the Company of the Courtesan // Sarah Dunant

The Crimson Petal and the White // Michel Faber

A Place of Greater Safety // Hilary Mantel 

The Little Shop of Found Things // Paula Brackston

The Improbability of Love // Hannah Rothschild

The Murder Most Unladylike series // Robin Stevens

Dark Angels // Karleen Koen

The Words in My Hand // Guinevere Glasfurd

Time’s Convert // Deborah Harkness

The Collector // John Fowles

Vivaldi’s Virgins // Barbara Quick

The Foundling // Stacey Halls

The Phantom Tree // Nicola Cornick

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle // Stuart Turton

Golden Hill // Francis Spufford

Assorted non-fiction not yet mentioned

The Dinosaur Hunters: A True Story of Scientific Rivalry and the Discovery of the Prehistoric World // Deborah Cadbury

The Beauty and the Terror: An Alternative History to the Italian Renaissance // Catherine Fletcher

All the King's Women: Love, Sex, and Politics in the life of Charles II // Derek Jackson

Mozart’s Women // Jane Glover

Scandalous Liaisons: Charles II and His Court // R.E. Pritchard

Matilda: Queen, Empress, Warrior // Catherine Hanley 

Black Tudors // Miranda Kaufman 

To Catch a King: Charles II's Great Escape // Charles Spencer

1666: Plague, War and Hellfire // Rebecca Rideal

Henrietta Maria: Charles I's Indomitable Queen // Alison Plowden

Catherine of Braganza: Charles II's Restoration Queen // Sarah-Beth Watkins

Four Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses // Helen Rappaport

Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox, 1740-1832 // Stella Tillyard 

The Fortunes of Francis Barber: The True Story of the Jamaican Slave who Became Samuel Johnson’s Heir // Michael Bundock

Black London: Life Before Emancipation // Gretchen Gerzina

In These Times: Living in Britain Through Napoleon’s Wars, 1793-1815

The King’s Mistress: Scandal, Intrigue and the True Story of the Woman who Stole the Heart of George I // Claudia Gold

Perdita: The Life of Mary Robinson // Paula Byrne

The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England // Amanda Vickery

Terms and Conditions: Life in Girls’ Boarding School, 1939-1979 // Ysenda Maxtone Graham 

Fanny Burney: A Biography // Claire Harman

Aphra Behn: A Secret Life // Janet Todd

The Imperial Harem: Women and the Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire // Leslie Peirce

The Fall of the House of Byron // Emily Brand

The Favourite: Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough // Ophelia Field

Night-Walking: A Nocturnal History of London // Matthew Beaumont, Will Self

Jane Austen: A Life // Claire Tomalin

Beloved Emma: The Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton // Flora Fraser

Sentimental Murder: Love and Madness in the 18th Century // John Brewer

Henrietta Howard: King’s Mistress, Queen’s Servant // Tracy Borman

City of Beasts: How Animals Shaped Georgian London // Tom Almeroth-Williams

Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion // Anne Somerset 

Charlotte Brontë: A Life // Claire Harman 

Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe // Anthony Summers

Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day // Peter Ackroyd 

Elizabeth I and Her Circle // Susan Doran

African Europeans: An Untold History // Olivette Otele 

Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron, and Other Tangled Lives // Daisy Hay

How to Create the Perfect Wife // Wendy Moore

The Sphinx: The Life of Gladys Deacon, Duchess of Marlborough // Hugo Vickers

The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn // Eric Ives

Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy // Barbara Ehrenreich

A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie // Kathryn Harkup 

Mistresses: Sex and Scandal at the Court of Charles II // Linda Porter

Female Husbands: A Trans History // Jen Manion

Ladies in Waiting: From the Tudors to the Present Day // Anne Somerset

Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country // Edward Parnell 

A Cheesemonger’s History of the British Isles // Ned Palmer

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine // Lindsey Fitzharris

Medieval Woman: Village Life in the Middle Ages // Ann Baer

The Husband Hunters: Social Climbing in London and New York // Anne de Courcy

The Voices of Nîmes: Women, Sex, and Marriage in Reformation Languedoc // Suzannah Lipscomb

The Daughters of the Winter Queen // Nancy Goldstone

Mad and Bad: Real Heroines of the Regency // Bea Koch

Bess of Hardwick // Mary S. Lovell

The Royal Art of Poison // Eleanor Herman 

The Strangest Family: The Private Lives of George III, Queen Charlotte, and the Hanoverians // Janice Hadlow

Palaces of Pleasure: From Music Halls to the Seaside to Football; How the Victorians Invented Mass Entertainment // Lee Jackson

Favourite books about current social/political issues (?? for lack of a better term)

Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power // Lola Olufemi

Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Worker Rights // Molly Smith, Juno Mac

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race // Reni Eddo-Lodge

Trans Britain: Our Journey from the Shadows // Christine Burns

Me, Not You: The Trouble with Mainstream Feminism // Alison Phipps

Trans Like Me: A Journey For All Of Us // C.N Lester

Brit(Ish): On Race, Identity, and Belonging // Afua Hirsch 

The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence, and Cultural Restitution // Dan Hicks

Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls: A Handbook for Unapologetic Living // Jes M. Baker

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot // Mikki Kendall

Denial: Holocaust History on Trial // Deborah Lipstadt

Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape // Jessica Valenti, Jaclyn Friedman

Don’t Touch My Hair // Emma Dabiri

Sister Outsider // Audre Lorde 

Unicorn: The Memoir of a Muslim Drag Queen // Amrou Al-Kadhi

Trans Power // Juno Roche

Breathe: A Letter to My Sons // Imani Perry

The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment // Amelia Gentleman

Happy Fat: Taking Up Space in a World That Wants to Shrink You // Sofie Hagen

Diaries, memoirs & letters

The Diary of a Young Girl // Anne Frank

Renia’s Diary: A Young Girl’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust // Renia Spiegel 

Writing Home // Alan Bennett

The Diary of Samuel Pepys // Samuel Pepys

Histoire de Ma Vie // Giacomo Casanova

Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger // Nigel Slater

London Journal, 1762-1763 // James Boswell

The Diary of a Bookseller // Shaun Blythell 

Jane Austen’s Letters // edited by Deidre la Faye

H is for Hawk // Helen Mcdonald 

The Salt Path // Raynor Winn

The Glitter and the Gold // Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough

Journals and Letters // Fanny Burney

Educated // Tara Westover

Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading // Lucy Mangan

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? // Jeanette Winterson

A Dutiful Boy // Mohsin Zaidi

Secrets and Lies: The Trials of Christine Keeler // Christine Keeler

800 Years of Women’s Letters // edited by Olga Kenyon

Istanbul // Orhan Pamuk

Henry and June // Anaïs Nin

Historical romance (this is a short list because I’m still fairly new to this genre)

The Bridgerton series // Julia Quinn

One Good Earl Deserves a Lover // Sarah Mclean

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake // Sarah Mclean

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics // Olivia Waite

That Could Be Enough // Alyssa Cole

Unveiled // Courtney Milan

The Craft of Love // EE Ottoman

The Maiden Lane series // Elizabeth Hoyt

An Extraordinary Union // Alyssa Cole

Slightly Dangerous // Mary Balogh

Dangerous Alliance: An Austentacious Romance // Jennieke Cohen

A Fashionable Indulgence // KJ Charles

[inky-duchess]

21 History Ancedotes for my 21st Birthday

So today I celebrate my 21st birthday and I have decided to gift you all with 21 of my favourite historical Ancedotes. Some are funny, some are sad and some are plain bizarre but I hope the make your day 💜

Mary Maloney, an Irish-born suffragette in England followed Winston Churchill around while he was campaigning for a seat in Parliament, drowning out everything he said with a very large bell and calls for him to apologise for his comments on women's rights and suffrage movements.

Clodius Pulcher was a well born Roman noble during the last day's of the Republic. He gave up his Patrician status to become Tribune of the Plebs (an office in which one had to be a Pleb) by being adopted by a much younger Plebian man who became his "father". Clodius was a bit of a riot, sneaking into religious festivals dressed like a woman to sleep with Caesar's wife, building a shrine to Liberty in the ruins of the Conservative Cicero, vetoed the last speech of one of the Consuls (who basically did nothing all year and was apparently going to roast Caesar) and burned down the Senate House with his funeral pyre (the Plebs who loved him literally tearing up the furniture to build his pyre). He was honestly the best fun.

When laying on her deathbed, Queen Caroline of Ansbach turned to her husband George II of England and told him he should marry again. George refused to ever wed again... But added he would have mistresses. Caroline said , likely with a roll of her eyes, "oh my god that doesn't matter."

Florence was a pretty cool city in the Renaissance until Savanorola came to town. He disliked the loose living artists that crowded the city, with their naked pagan gods and rampant homosexuality. He expelled them all with help of the French hoping to make Florence Holy Again. When the Borgia Pope excommunicated him and sentenced him to death, one man in the crowd was reported to have said. "thank God, niw we can return to sodomy." One Floretine man in the 1490s said Gay Rights.

So this list couldn't be complete without an entry of the only American politician I love, Alexander Hamilton who was just a walking entity of sass. I could go on about his sharp sarcasm or his disaster bi vibes with John Lauren's but my all time favourite Alexander Hamilton ancedote has to be this exchange with Thomas Jefferson "There are approximately 1010300 words in the English language, but I could never string enough words together to properly explain how much I want to hit you with a chair."

Caterina Sforza was an Italian noble woman during the Renaissance. She was apart of the powerful Sforza family, which drew many enemies to her. One fateful day at Forli, Caterina's children were snatched as hostages. The besiegers threatened to kill her children if she did not cede the castle. Caterina refused, lifting her skirts and shouted to the besiegers that she had the means to make more children.

Hannibal Lecter's creator Thomas Harris was happy to end his great character's story with the original trilogy. However his publishers forced him to write an unneeded prequel explaining why Hannibal became Hannibal. Thomas Harris agreed lest he lose the rights to his character so he wrote Hannibal Rising, where Hannibal as a young man hunts down the Nazis who ate his sister with a katana.

Nell Gwyn is my favourite mistress of Charles II, mainly because of her sass. Once while trapped in the middle of a riot where Londoners swamped her carriage thinking she was Charles's Catholic mistress. She popped her head out the carriage and told the people "Pray good people be civil. I am the Protestant whore." She also dosed her rival Moll Davis with laxatives in order to free up some of Charles's time and she once flashed her underwear at the French ambassador after asking him why the Franch King did not pay her to spy on Charles because she was with him every night. A true Queen.

Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty of China once rose from his bed to go do some ruling when he realised his lover, Dong Xian was sleeping on his sleeve. Rather than disturb his lover, the Emperor cut his sleeve off at the wrist to leave Dong Xian nap. Nothing has ever been more romantic than that. Y'all could never.

Princess Margaret the sister of current Queen Elizabeth II was a socialable Princess and often tasked to visit the up and coming music stars of the day on behalf of the Crown. When meeting the Beatles one evening, she noticed George Harrison was acting a little odd. When she asked what was the matter, he replied "We arent allowed eat until you go." Princess Margaret laughed and promptly left so the Beatles could get some dinner.

During the Siege of Jadotsville, Irish soldiers under the flag of the UN were attacked and besieged by local insurgents allied with the Katanga Regime. The insurgents numbered thousands while the Irish only had 158 soldiers, all who were lightly armed. They radioed to their allies assuring them that "we will hold out until our last bullet is spent. Could use some whiskey though".

Napoleon was famous for writing raunchy letters to his wife, the Empress Josephine while he was away. She used to reply with really mundane letters or not at all. She really just could not be bothered with him.

Josip Broz Tito was so fed up with Joseph Stalin sending assassins to kill him, he wrote to Stalin personally to say "If you don't stop sending assassins to kill me. I will send one to Moscow and I won't have to send another." It didn't work but Big Dick Energy.

Successful Roman soldiers returning from war often got to march along in parades known as Triumphs. During this, it was customary for them to sing bawdy songs about their commander. One surviving one about Caesar goes like this "Romans, lock up your wives. Here comes the bald adulterous whore. We pissed away your gold in Gaul and come to borrow more."

Matilda, Lady of the English was a woman so badass that history cannot handle her. She was the daughter of Henry I who left his throne to her after the death of her brother. She was away in France when her father died and her throne was snatched by her cousin Stephen. They battled back and forth for years with neither side ceding any ground. Matilda was once besieged in a castle during a snow storm, with Stephen's men all around her. Instead of fighting her way out. She simply donned a white cloak and walked out of the castle. Just walked out without any of Stephen's men seeing her.

Pedro of Portugal once fell in love with a beautiful lady in waiting called Inez de Castro. For years, they lived as man and mistress, popping out a few kinds. Pedro's dad really did not like Inez and wanted Pedro to find a legitimate wife so he had her killed. Pedro returned home to find the mother of his children dead. Pedro went a little crazy. He had all his father's assassins killed, ripping out their hearts as they had done to him. When Pedro ascended the throne, he demanded the Pope legitimize his children by Inez. The Pope not wanting to upset the King, said he couldn't because Inez was never crowned Queen. Pedro dug Inez up and crowned her as Queen, having all the nobility swear loyalty to her corpse. The Pope had no choice but to agree to his request.

A famously clever general once saved an entire city with an ingenious stragety to sit outside the city waiting for the attacking army to come. The attack had come to fast for the city to ready themselves for a Siege so, the general had to move quickly. He evacuated the city and took his place waiting for the army to come. The enemy forces stopped and took one look at him and bolted, thinking he meant to lure them in one of his famous traps.

Michaelangelo was really badly treated by the Vatican when he was painting the Sistine Chapel. He constantly fought with the Popes over the design and his work, which he was paid peanuts for. Michaelangelo got his revenge in his work, painting the gates of Hell behind the Papal Throne and an angel flipping the ol' fig (the Renaissance version of the bird) toward the Pope's chair.

Peter the Great was not a perfect guy. He kept serfdom as a practise in his kingdom, he had his son tortured to death and he could be an unpleasant guy. But Peter was a dreamer. He wanted nothing more to build a fleet for Russia and bring Russia beyond its borders. Peter took a gap year from ruling Russia to wander around Europe. When he stopped in England, he was granted Leicester House to chill in while he did his shipwright studies. It was here that Peter found a new passion. The wheelbarrow. Cue Peter and his new found English buddies drinking in Leicester House, punching the artwork and rolling each other around in barrels across the house's Great gardens.

Diogenes is hands down a walking shit post. He was a great thinker in Greece during the reign of Alexander but a rather dry, sarcastic wit. He lived in a pithos/a jar because he shunned all vanities and values of society. He trolled other philosophers, attending their debates to heckle them and eat loud foods through them. When Alexander the Great came to fan boy over him, saying that if he were not Alexander he would like to be Diogenes to which Diogenes just said "yeah me too, now get out of my sunlight."

Cosimo de Medici was the son of a Floretine banker with a great knowledge and love of art. Cosimo wished for Florence to release its potentially and join the Renaissance. He hired Filippo Brunelleschi to finsh the Great Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore which had láin unfinished for over a century, a symbol of a failure of ambition. The builders had lost the knowledge of creating a dome so large so it remained unfinished. Despite much opposition from the other nobility and denouncers of the Renaissance, Cosimo's dream of the completion of the dome was completed, making it the largest brick dome in creation at that time. There is nothing like achieving your dreams and certainly nothing like leaving a lasting reminder that screams 'I was right and you were wrong' to stand for centuries.

[church-history]

Mary Catholic Queen of Scot Rightful Ruler of England

What could have been? It is likely this question came to the mind of the forty-four-year-old Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots and the rightful queen of England, on the morning of February 8, 1587, as she awaited her execution at the hands of English Protestants. Her tragic story is not well known (many confuse her with “Bloody Mary” or Mary Tudor, who reigned as Queen of England from 1553-1558)

Her story begins with the end of another Mary. Mary Tudor, the daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, died in September 1558. Mary Tudor restored the Catholic Faith to England after the schismatic and heretical actions of her father and half-brother, King Edward VI. English Catholics lived in fear that Mary Tudor’s death would bring her Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth (the daughter of Henry and Anne Boleyn), to the throne. The fact that Mary Tudor’s marriage to Prince Philip of Spain did not produce a child exacerbated these fears.

English Catholics’ worst nightmare became reality when Mary Tudor died, and Elizabeth ascended the throne and began the first state-sponsored persecution of the Catholic Church since the Roman Empire. Elizabeth’s claim to the throne was illegitimate in Catholic eyes, since her father’s “marriage” to Anne Boleyn was invalid (Pope Clement VII upheld the validity of his marriage bond to Catherine of Aragon in 1534). The legitimate successor to the English throne was the sixteen-year-old Mary Stuart, who was the granddaughter of Henry Tudor’s eldest sister, Margaret.

Mary Stuart had been Queen of Scots since 1542 (at only six days old!) when her father, James V, died fighting an English invasion army. While a toddler, Mary was taken out of Scotland for her safety and was settled in France, the home country of her mother (Mary de Guise). Betrothed to the Dauphin Francis, Mary Stuart became queen consort of France in 1559 when Francis was crowned king after the premature death of Henry II (who died from a wound suffered during a knightly tournament). Sadly, Francis II died seventeen months later from an ear infection. The king’s mother, Catherine de’ Medici, reigned as regent, and Mary decided to return to Scotland in August 1561.

The tall, beautiful young widow came ashore to a troubled Scotland. The Protestant revolutionary John Knox, who had spent time studying under John Calvin in Geneva, was on a mission to destroy the Catholic Church in Scotland and institute Calvinist teachings and ordinances. Mary, a Catholic, had to tread carefully with the Protestant Knox, who was extremely popular and had many noble friends. Knox disliked Mary and her faith and found female rule an abomination and contrary to God’s will (he wrote a treatise in 1558 titled The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women). Eventually, Mary confronted Knox (played brilliantly by David Tennant in the new movie) and asked whether he wished to make war against her. Knox replied that he was as content to live under her reign as St. Paul was to live under Nero.

Within two years of Mary’s return, Knox preached publicly that she should convert to Protestantism or face execution. Enemies surrounded Mary. She received little support from her traitorous and cowardly half-brother, James Stuart, the Earl of Moray, and had to contend with English interference orchestrated by Elizabeth’s secretary of state, William Cecil. Although the lack of a legitimate rival to Mary helped maintain her power and authority, it was a tenuous reign.

Mary realized she needed to marry a strong Catholic prince to solidify her rule, but Knox and others agitated against it. She ignored the opposition and married her first cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, in the summer of 1565. Darnley was tall, handsome, and Catholic (but an English subject), and Mary became infatuated with him soon after their first meeting. Mary found support for her marriage to Darnley from David Riccio, her Italian secretary. Many Scottish nobles disliked Riccio’s influence with Mary, and in February 1566 convinced Darnley that Riccio was Mary’s secret lover (the movie instead portrays Darnley and Riccio as homosexual lovers). Darnley conspired with the nobles and agreed to Riccio’s murder in Mary’s presence in March.

A few months after witnessing the horrific and brutal death of her friend, Mary gave birth to a boy she named James in June 1566. The boy, baptized Catholic but raised Protestant, was destined to rule both Scotland and England as James VI and I, as his mother should have been able to do. Unfortunately, Mary was denied the right to raise her son in the Faith due to political events, as she was forced to flee Scotland once again when the child was only ten months old.

Eventually, a group of nobles, including James Hepburn, Fourth Earl of Bothwell, murdered the conspiring and cowardly Lord Darnley at Kirk o’ Field in February 1568. Bothwell then abducted Mary and forced her to marry him for protection in May 1568. Later that summer, Scottish nobles finally succeeded in what they had tried to accomplish for the last seven years: the abdication of Mary as queen. Her infant son was crowned king of Scotland, and Mary was imprisoned in Lochleven castle. With the help of a small number of supporters, she escaped and made the puzzling choice to seek refuge in England rather than certain safety in France. Perhaps Mary believed she might be able to raise an army with the help of her cousin Elizabeth.

It was a fatal error in judgment. Viewed with suspicion because of her legitimate claim to the English throne, Mary was imprisoned in limited house arrest and carefully watched for the next nineteen years.

Elizabeth resisted the urgings of Cecil and others to execute Mary until she was (falsely) implicated in a plot to assassinate the queen in 1586 (and even then, Elizabeth hesitated). Mary was beheaded early in 1587. Her death, in part, caused King Philip II of Spain, who had pledged protection to Mary, to initiate the Spanish Armada (which was also launched to end the persecution of Catholics in England).

Mary’s sufferings surely must have caused her to question the events of her life and to ask what could have been. However, she held fast to her Faith in the end and recognized that events in life occur for a reason and are guided by God’s providential goodness, love, and mercy. She exhibited this strong faith in her last words: “All this world is but vanity and full of troubles and sorrows. Even as thy arms, O Jesus, were spread here upon the cross, so receive me into thy arms of mercy and forgive me all my sins” (quoted in Warren H. Carroll, The Cleaving of Christendom, 419).

[scotianostra]

16th July 1588  saw the death of  Agnes Keith Countess of Moray.

I don’t normally cover minor nobility in my posts, but it’s a wee bit quiet today and Lady Agnes is an interesting character who did well in a male orientated world. Most of this post is “filler” material, for me the most interesting part of her story is the story of jewels that belonged to Mary Queen of Scots, that feel into Lady Agnes’s possession......

 Agnes  was a noblewoman the eldest daughter of William Keith, 4th Earl Marischal and Margaret Keith, born in Dunnottar Castle, about 1540. Her paternal grandparents were Robert Keith, Master of Marischal, and Lady Elizabeth Douglas, and her maternal grandparents were Sir Wiliam Keith and Janet Gray. Agnes was a descendant of King James I of Scotland and his consort Joan Beaufort, the subject of a post yesterday, who was in her turn the great-granddaughter of King Edward III of England.

She had two brothers, William Keith, Master of Marischal , and   Robert Keith, 1st Lord Altrie and six younger sisters. These were Elizabeth, wife of Sir Alexander Irvine of Drum; Alison, wife of Alexander, Lord Salton; Mary, wife of Sir John Campbell of Calder; Beatrice, wife of John Allardice of Allardice; Janet, wife of James Crichton of Frendraght; and Margaret, wife of Sir John Kennedy of Balquhan. Her aunt was Elizabeth Keith, wife of George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly who would lead an unsuccessful rebellion against Mary, Queen of Scots in 1562. Her first cousin was Lady Jean Gordon, the first wife of James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, who himself would become the third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. Agnes's father was a member of Queen Mary's Privy Council; he had fought at the Battle of Pinkie when she was about seven years old. He died in 1581.  You can see I’m filling this post out a bit, but I am just showing that the Marischal's had connections far and wide with their fingers in a lot of pies. 

At St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh or at Holyrood on 8 February 1561/2, Agnes was married to James Stewart, the illegitimate half-brother and chief adviser of Mary, Queen of Scots, who had been created Earl of Mar the previous day. The ceremony was magnificent, attended by many of the nobility, with John Knox having preached the sermon. The lavish wedding was followed by three days of festivities and banqueting at Holyrood Palace, the “frivolity” of which was subsequently denounced by Knox with the words: "the vanity used thereat offended many godly". 

Queen Mary made much of the new Lady Mar and regarded her as a close member of her family. Having been well-educated, Agnes was described by author Antonia Fraser as having had "genuine intelligence and spirit". Keith M. Brown, Professor of Scottish History at the University of St. Andrews, called her "clever, acquisitive and steely".  It was recorded that in August 1566 following the birth of Prince James, the future King James VI of Scotland, Agnes was one of the ladies with whom the queen kept the most company. In early February 1567, Agnes suffered a miscarriage, which provided her husband with an excuse to hastily depart from Edinburgh; thus he was away when Lord Darnley was murdered at Kirk O'Field.

Mary was deposed by the Confederate Lords at the battle of Carberry Hill, while Moray was still in France. Mary was taken in custody to Lochleven Castle. Although the Lords would not forward Moray's letters to Mary, Agnes stayed with the Queen and her mother-in-law at Lochleven in July 1567. The English ambassador in Edinburgh Nicholas Throckmorton heard there was "grete sorowe betwixt the Queen and her at theyre meeting and much gretter at theyre departing." Soon after on 24 July 1567, Mary was forced to abdicate. Moray was proclaimed Regent of Scotland for the infant King James VI on 22 August 1567. While her husband held the regency, Agnes was the most powerful woman in Scotland. She was a very intelligent and intimidating politician, and many people were afraid of incurring her wrath. 

In May 1568, before the Battle of Langside, she coldly informed her frightened cousin, George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly, "ye haf mad me angary". Huntly had indicated that he would support Mary rather than Regent Moray, so even though she had been close to the Queen , her loyalties lay with her husband.

Moray was assassinated at Linlithgow in January 1570, Agnes  was pregnant at the time of her husband's murder and delivered a daughter, Margaret, shortly afterwards. She spent the two years following his assassination managing the family estates and fighting a series of legal battles in which she sought to obtain financial compensation for the time he acted as regent. While Agnes was at Dunnotar, her mother-in-law, Margaret Erskine, looked after her second eldest daughter, Annabell at the New House of Lochleven Castle. Although Annabell was described as 'merry and very lusty' by Agnes' secretary John Wood in April 1570, some months later Margaret had to write to the widowed Countess of Moray describing her death. She told Agnes that, 'God sall send your Ladyschip barnis efter this, for ye ar young aneuch.'

Sometime  between January 1571 and February 1572 Agnes  married  another powerful man, Sir Colin Campbell, heir presumptive to the earldom of Argyll. When he succeeded his brother as the 6th earl in 1573, Agnes was henceforth styled Countess of Argyll. During her second marriage, Agnes became embroiled in a litigation over Queen Mary's jewels which had earlier fallen into her keeping. It 

Mary,had written to Agnes from Tutbury Castle soon after Moray's assassination on 28 March 1570 regarding these jewels. Mary wanted them sent to her in England including a piece made up of diamonds and rubies called the "H". This was the "Great Harry", a diamond given to Mary on the occasion of her first marriage by her father-in-law, King Henry II of France. The Earl of Huntly asked for the jewels on Mary's behalf on 1 November 1570, and Mary herself wrote again for them on 27th January 1571. However, the Regent Lennox had also asked for them on 13th September 1570. Facing a dilemma between handing the jewels over to Mary or the Scottish government, (knowing also that Moray had sold some of the crown jewels to Elizabeth I to fund the civil war), Agnes chose to hang onto the jewels.

It was Agnes' desire to hold onto these valuable jewels which provoked a feud between her second husband and the Regent Morton, who demanded their return on behalf of King James VI of Scotland, threatening the couple with arrest if they failed to deliver the jewels which he insisted belonged to the Scottish Crown. Agnes argued that she retained the jewels as a pledge for the debts owed to her for the expenses that the Earl of Moray had laid out as Regent.When Agnes and her husband failed to hand them over, they were both "put to the horn" (declared rebels) on 3 February 1574. Agnes appealed to the Scottish Parliament, and wrote several articulate, formal letters to Queen Elizabeth requesting her intervention which would permit Agnes to retain the jewels. These letters were considered by Francis Walsingham in September 1574. The lengthy inquiry and litigation with Regent Morton over the custody of the precious stones, ended on 5th March 1575, when the earl, in his own name and that of Agnes, surrendered them to Morton. The Earl of Argyll would later be partly responsible for Regent Morton's fall from power and loss of the Regency in 1578. ... Agnes died on 16th July 1588 in Edinburgh and was buried in St. Giles Cathedral inside the tomb of her first husband as seen in pic two.

[auditionsuggestions]

Show Breakdowns - Little Women: The Musical

Here’s a new thing I’m trying! Basically breakdowns and descriptions of characters in a show along with the audition songs I suggest for them! I figued I’d start with a show I know inside and out.  Below the Cut for length. This is specific to the 2005 Jason Howland/Mindi Dickstein version.

Josephine “Jo” March

Playing age: 15-22 (character ages through the show)

Lead. A Star Vehicle role. Jo barely leaves the stage (I should know, I’ve played her before).

Range: E3-A5, Belt to E5. Mezzo Belt (or strong mix)

Dance Requirement: Some movement

Jo is fiery, exuberant, and passionate. All her emotions are extremes which can lead her to be rather blunt or brash and very headstrong. She starts as a complete tomboy and keeps a lot of that as she grows up. The show begins with her in her 20s living in a boarding house in New York City and then Act I flashes back to her teen years in Concord, MA with Act II coming back to her 20s. Her journey is tied to  finding her own unique voice as an author rather than just writing what she thinks will sell. 

Suggested Songs:

Uptempo: Spark of Creation, Children of Eden; Watch What Happens, Newsies; I’m Your Man, Meet John Doe; Times are Hard for Dreamers, Amelie; The Writing on the Wall, The Mystery of Edwin Drood; Live Out Loud, A Little Princess

Midtempo: Journey to the Past, Anastasia; 

Ballad: Woman, The Pirate Queen;  He Threw Me, Meet John Doe;   A Change in Me, Beauty and the Beast

Theodore “Laurie” Laurence

Playing age: 15-22 (ages through the show)

Supporting Character. Doubles as Roderigo I

Range: Bb2-Bb4 (A youthful, contemporary high Tenor)

Dance Requirement: Some movement

Laurie is the quintessential boy next door. He lives with his grandfather and his cat across the way from the March sisters and quickly becomes enthralled by the love, warmth, and joy in their family that he feels lacking in his own house. He and Jo are best friends and almost too alike. After Jo rejects his proposal, he goes away to Europe where (after reuiniting with a now grown up Amy) he matures and he and Jo are able to resume their friendship (now as brother-in-law and sister-in-law). As Roderigo I, he starts as the generic hero of the story Jo is writing.

Suggested Songs:

Uptempo: Top of the World, Tuck Everlasting; Partner in Crime, Tuck Everlasting (Originally duets, can be arranged as solos)

Midtempo: My Petersburg, Anastasia; Corner of the Sky, Pippin (overdone)

Ballad:  Proud of Your Boy, Aladdin; I’ll Be There, The Pirate Queen

Margaret “Meg” March

Playing age: 16-23

Supporting Character. Doubles as Clarissa

Range: Bb3-B5 (Legit Soprano)

Dance Requirement: Some movement

Meg is the eldest of the March sisters and takes it upon herself to try and teach her younger sisters how to act like a proper lady--though she’s still really a kid herself . Meg is the only one of the sisters with a solid memory of what it was like when the family was wealthy and often finds herself yearning for the ease the money would bring to her life. She wants to be accepted and admired in society, but learns that her own happiness is much more important than status or money. As Clarissa, she is the heroine of the story Jo writes growing with Jo’s skill as an author from a generic damsel in distress to her own knight in shining armor.

Suggested Songs: Till there Was You, The Music Man; I’ve Never Been in Love Before, Guys and Dolls; Goodnight My Someone, The Music Man; I Saw Him Once, Les Miserables; I Could Have Danced All Night, My Fair Lady

Elizabeth “Beth” March

Playing age: 13-21 (character ages through the show)

Supporting Character. Doubles as Roderigo II

Range: A3-G5 (Mix Soprano)

Dance Requirement: Some movement

Beth is the third-born of the March sisters. She is the peace-maker of the family and can always be counted on to support or uplift her sisters whenever they need it. She is constantly willing to go out of her way to help those who need it (such as their poor neighbors, The Hummels) and has a deep love of music through which she bonds with Grandfather Laurence. As Roderigo II, she is the twist that shows Jo’s unique flair as a writer, turning out to be the heroine’s sister in disguise rather than another generic swashbuckling hero.

Suggested Songs: How Could I Ever Know, The Secret Garden; The Girl I Mean to Be, The Secret Garden; Much More, The Fantasticks (overdone); Far From the Home I Love, Fiddler on the Roof; The Secret of Happiness, Daddy Long Legs; In My Own Little Corner, R&H Cinderella

Amelia “Amy” Curtis March

Playing age: 12-20 (sometimes cast with 2 actresses as younger and older Amy)

Supporting Character. Doubles as Troll

Range: G3-G5 (Bright, Disney-esque Soprano or Mezzo)

Dance Requirement: Some movement

Amy is the youngest of the March sisters. As a 12 year old, she longs to be grown up and elegant. She normally feels forgotten or left behind as the youngest. Very feminine Amy often butts heads with tomboy-ish Jo as they’re both headstrong and impulsive--two sides of the same coin. As a 20 year old, Amy has been chosen by Aunt March to accompany her to Europe to become cultured and (ostensibly) to be educated in painting (though it’s really more that Aunt March wants Amy to find a suitable husband). Amy returns still headstrong and impulsive, but also now the refined lady she dreamed of being as a child. She eventually falls in love with Laurie as their personalities compliment each other where Laurie’s and Jo’s clashed. As the Troll, she is an obstacle for Clarissa to overcome, representative of conquering materialism.

Suggested Songs: Love is an Open Door, Frozen; That’s How You Know, Enchanted; A Lovely Night, Cinderella; I Could be Happy With You, The Boy Friend; Follow Your Heart, Urinetown; Beyond My Wildest Dreams, The Little Mermaid; Much More, The Fantasticks (possibly overdone)

Marmee March

Playing age: ~42-50 (Flexible as Marmee’s age is never given)

Supporting Character. Doubles as Hag

Range:D3-E5 (a warm Mezzo or Alto)

Dance Requirement: A little movement (one number).

Marmee is the mother of the March girls. With her husband away at war (and not featured in the show at all), it falls on her alone to raise the girls to be strong, brave, and compassionate young women. Marmee is wise and loving, but not overly indulgent or lenient with the girls. She hides much of her grief and struggles (and temper) from her daughters so that they feel they can always lean on her. (Fun fact, Meg and Amy are both named after Marmee, whose given name is Margaret and maiden name was Curtis). As the Hag, she is an obstacle for Clarissa to overcome, representative of conquering vanity

Suggested Songs: Back to Before, Ragtime; What Kind of Woman, Ragtime; Sensitivity, Once Upon A Mattress; When There’s No One, Carrie: the Musical, Close the Door, Anastasia

Aunt March

Playing Age: ~65-73 (Flexible)

Supporting Character. Doubles as Mrs. Kirk

Range: D3-E5 (Character Mezzo or Alto)

Dance Requirement: Optional (Possible in “Could You”)

Aunt March is the girls’ formidable, crabby, and very wealthy Great Aunt for whom Jo was named. While she is stern and rigid, she genuinely does love her great nieces and wants to see them succeed in life (granted: “succeed” by her definition). Jo works as a companion for Aunt March, reading to her and fixing things around the house. Amy later takes over this job as she gets older. Mrs. Kirk is Jo’s landlady and employer in New York. Jo is governess to Mrs. Kirk’s daughters. She can be a bit of a busybody, but  is overall very kind to and supportive of Jo.

Suggested Songs: Perfectly Nice, Jane Eyre: the musical; A Slip of A Girl, Jane Eyre; Liaisons, A Little Night Music; So What, Cabaret; Brimstone and Treacle, Mary Poppins; Haven’t Got a Prayer, Sister Act

Professor Friedrich “Fritz” Bhaer

Playing age: 34-35 (but looks older.)

Supporting Character

Range: G2-F#4 (A high Baritone/Baritone with a strong upper extension--should sound older than Laurie and Mr. Brooke)

Dance Requirement: None

Prof. Bhaer is another tenant of Mrs. Kirk’s boarding house in New York. Originally from Germany, he emigrated to America upon his sister’s death to raise her two sons. He and Jo strike up an odd friendship and he becomes her beta-reader. He is nonconfrontational by nature, but will give his honest and blunt opinion when asked (much to Jo’s chagrin at times). He finds himself fascinated by the adventurous young author and eventually they fall in love--a union of equals rather than simply being in love with the idea of Jo as Laurie was.

Suggested Songs:  Some Girls, Once on this Island; I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face, My Fair Lady; Love Sneaks In, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; Emma, Emma the Musical; Charity, Daddy Long Legs

Mr. John Brooke

Playing age: 20-28 (Flexible, no age is given in the story).

Supporting Character. Doubles as Braxton

Range: C#3-Gb4 (A darker tenor than Laurie, but sitll lighter than Prof. Bhaer).

Dance Requirement: None

Though he starts off as Laurie’s rather stiff tutor, Mr. Brooke is a romantic at heart and a big dork. He and Meg are immediately smitten with one another. He later shows off his latent courage by joining up with the Union Army and endears himself to the other sisters (Jo was not particularly keen on his and Meg’s relationship) by escorting Marmee to Washington DC when her husband falls ill. As Braxton, he is the classic over the top melodrama villain in Jo’s story who Clarissa vanquishes with the help of her sister.

Suggested Songs: Everything To Win, Anastasia; There She Was, The Scarlet Pimpernel; Her Voice, The Little Mermaid

Grandfather Laurence

Playing age: ~65-73 (Flexible)

Supporting Character. Doubles as The Knight

Range: C#3-D4 (Gruff Character Baritone or Tenor with a strong lower extension)

Dance Requirement: Optional (possible in “Off to Massachusetts”)

Laurie’s distant and rather foreboding grandfather. Mr. Laurence took Laurie in after the boy was orphaned and is very strict with him. He originally sees his grandson’s involvement with the March girls as an unnecessary and detrimental distraction from Laurie’s studies, but is won over by Beth with whom he bonds as she reminds him of his dead granddaughter in both demeanor and love of music. He eventually becomes a surrogate grandfather to all the March sisters. As the Knight, he is the final obstacle for Clarissa to overcome, representative of accepting self-sacrifice and putting the needs of others first.

Suggested Songs: A Sentimental Man, Wicked; No Matter What, Beauty and the Beast; Something Was Missing, Annie

[tabloidtoc]

Entertainment Weekly, July

Cover: Tenet stars Robert Pattinson, John David Washington and Elizabeth Debicki 

Page 1: Contents

Page 3: Sound Bites 

Page 5: Editor’s Note 

Page 7: Watch, read, listen, engage -- for those seeking insight into what African-Americans face on a daily basis from both institutions and individuals and how those challenges have been depicted in the media and popular entertainment 

Page 8: 13th, Watchmen 

Page 9: Frontline: A Class Divided, Dear White People, Code Switch, Pass Over 

Page 10: The Must List -- Memoirs and Misinformation by Jim Carrey 

Page 12: Haim -- Women in Music Pt. III, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark 

Page 13: Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan 

Page 14: Q&A Margo Price, Palm Springs 

Page 16: The Truth, Babyteeth 

Page 17: The Last of Us Part II, MTV’s Cribs -- Ja Rule, 50 Cent, Mariah Carey 

Page 19: First Take -- The Now 

Page 21: Star Trek: Lower Decks 

Page 22: Industry 

Page 24: Cover Story -- The show must go on -- after months of lockdown Hollywood hopes Christopher Nolan’s time-twisting thriller Tenet can lure audiences back to theaters 

Page 32: Peacock Preview 

Page 34: Brave New World 

Page 35: Q&A Soleil Moon Frye of Punky Brewster 

Page 36: Saved by the Bell, Intelligence, Battlestar Galactica, Dr. Death, Expecting 

Page 37: Psych 2: Lassie Come Home

Page 38: Oral History of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World with Edgar Wright, Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Chris Evans, Ellen Wong, Kieran Culkin, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Jason Schwartzman 

Page 44: News + Reviews -- Emmy Cam-pains 

Page 47: Our dream Emmy lineup 

Page 50: Movies -- John Lewis: Good Trouble, Miss Juneteenth, Da 5 Bloods 

Page 51: Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga 

Page 52: A.J. Jacobs reveals his trick for spicing up movie and TV marathons 

Page 54: With summer blockbusters largely on ice a spate of smart new documentaries find their chance to shine -- Athlete A, Welcome to Chechnya, For They Know Not What They Do 

Page 55: Judd Apatow 

Page 56: TV -- Unaired Pilots -- in 2006 creator Liz Teigelaar headed to Vancouver to shoot a pilot with Jessy Schram and Ben Barnes titled Split Decision about how our choices define us but it never saw the light of day 

Page 58: Rebirth of the legal thriller -- ratings killed TV’s lawyers but Perry Mason revives the famous defender just in time for the genre’s new dark age 

Page 60: John Lithgow -- before lawyering up on Perry Mason the six-time Emmy-winning actor breaks down his chameleonic fame by explaining how fans know him best 

Page 62: Search Party 

Page 63: What to Watch 

Page 64: The Animal Stars of Quarantine -- Brody, Zipper, Olive and Mabel, Betty 

Page 67: These stars are happy to meet your wine needs -- Post Malone, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Jon Bon Jovi and Jesse Bongiovi, John Legend 

Page 72: Music -- Will vinyl survive the pandemic? 

Page 73: Choe X Halle 

Page 74: Mini-Oral History -- how Phoebe Bridgers and a few familiar faces came together to make the singer-songwriter’s bruising new album Punisher 

Page 76: Q+A John Legend -- the 41-year-old singer and activist talks about his new album Bigger Love, nostalgia for his old work and how to fix the Grammys 

Page 78: Books -- Authors Nic Stone and Kim Johnson discuss the power and pain of writing about black lives for a young-adult audience in this moment and beyond 

Page 80: David Mitchell -- the Cloud Atlas author’s latest novel is unlike any he’s written before: structured like an album Utopia Avenue follows a British rock band seeking stardom in 1967 but as is tradition for David Mitchell the tale contains echoes of his past books -- major themes and Easter eggs alike. We break them down here 

Page 81: One of the most decorated poets alive Natasha Trethewey confronts her traumatic past in the brutal beautiful memoir Memorial Drive 

Page 82: Pop Culture of My Life -- Max Brooks -- the World War Z mastermind is back with the bigfoot horror novel Devolution. Here he reveals his own personal fandoms 

Page 84: The Bullseye

[motherofbulldogs]

Opinion | Heavy Lies the Crown - The New York Times

March 25, 2024

Heavy Lies the Crown

A diamond and gem encrusted crown, trimmed with ermine, is carried on a red velvet cushion.

Pool photo by Johnny Green

By Tina Brown

Ms. Brown is the author of “The Diana Chronicles” and “The Palace Papers.”

I was in London last week when the febrile madness of Where Is Kate? was blowing up social media, and the Curious Mystery of the Doctored Mother’s Day Photograph consumed every news outlet and dinner table conversation.

After The Associated Press issued a kill notification on the botched photoshopped image of a suspiciously glossy Princess of Wales surrounded by her beaming progeny, there was a typical outburst of tabloid pomposity questioning whether Kensington Palace could ever be considered a trusted source of news.

Huh? When was the last time any tabloid considered the palace a trusted source of news? As the editor of Vanity Fair in 1985, I wrote a piece revealing that Prince Charles and Princess Diana were having awful marital fights. The palace roundly denied it, and the royal couple denied it in a television interview, confirming in my mind — correctly, as it turned out — that it was all true.

But this time, the volume and tenor of the gossip was off the charts. In all the raucous, salacious and often cruel rumormongering about Catherine, almost no one considered that behind the scenes something tragic was unfolding. When social media shrieked that there would be a very somber press announcement on Friday, royal-watchers assumed it would be from King Charles, who is battling an unspecified cancer.

But then the bombshell: Catherine announced in a video message that she, too, had cancer. After which there has rightly been a wave of cosmic shame about what this gracious public servant has been made to endure.

Catherine’s explanation of her cancer diagnosis was composed and moving, her face strained but brave. Filmed on a bench against a glimpse of spring daffodils, here was an ill woman trying to cope with a shocking diagnosis and painful medical treatment while shielding her young, worried children from the vultures of modern media.

I am told the turmoil behind the scenes has been intense, resulting in what has felt like a series of baffling press screw-ups. We hear often of Prince Harry’s hatred of the press. If possible, Prince William — while concealing it better — hates the press even more. His bloody-minded determination to stick to his grandmother Queen Elizabeth’s script of “never complain, never explain” is magical thinking in the era of the social media maelstrom, creating a vacuum filled by rumor and deranged conspiracy theories.

The almost simultaneous news of Charles’s cancer has put William and Catherine in frightening proximity to ascending the throne just when they had hoped for a span of years to parent their children out of the public eye. The prospect of it, I am told, is causing them intense anxiety.

Help from other family members is scant, aside from the redoubtable Princess Anne, Charles’s sister, and the good-egg Gaiety Girl Queen Camilla. The slimmed-down monarchy that Charles always promoted is suddenly looking very lean indeed. The combination of the Harry and Meghan clown show in Montecito, Calif.; the fusillades from Harry’s memoir, “Spare”; and the disgrace of Prince Andrew — who has little social contact with anyone except his horse — have put William and Catherine under unmanageable pressure.

Catherine is the most popular member of the royal family after William. The future of the monarchy hangs by a thread, and that thread is her.

It may not be a popular thought, but in many ways I blame the predicament and weakness of the monarchy today on Queen Elizabeth. It’s possible that future generations will see her as the Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the British monarchy. She stayed too long, and by doing so, left behind a legacy that may be the opposite of what she wanted.

The time for Elizabeth II to step down was not long after her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, the year I have come to think of as peak London, when Britain dazzlingly hosted the Olympics. Elizabeth II had embarked on a triumphantly healing visit for the first time to the Republic of Ireland in 2011, Charles proved he was a settled married man at last to Camilla, Harry was a national hero after two military tours of Afghanistan, and William and Kate Middleton had recently tied the knot at Westminster Abbey in a blaze of national good will.

It would have been such a gift to her heirs if at that glorious moment Elizabeth II had stepped aside, as Margrethe II, the queen of Denmark, did in January 2024. After 52 years on the throne, she announced her abdication in her New Year’s address with the elegant explanation that “the time takes its toll.”

Instead, Elizabeth II stayed on some 10 years — to the end. Apparently to honor her oath to serve “my whole life, whether it be long or short,” but actually because she loved her job. She had seen how bored and marginalized the Queen Mother felt when, widowed young by George VI and deprived of power dinners with heads of state or the inside scoop from her husband’s tête-à-têtes with the prime minister, she was relegated to boring rounds of cutting ribbons in those huge feathery hats. No, Elizabeth II loved the world of politics and power as much as she did breeding horses and tramping the heather of her Balmoral estate.

But her 70-year reign has left a pileup of heirs infantilized by too little to do and trapped by a dusty structure that should have been reformed decades ago.

Charles, full of prescient ideas, inventive concepts of philanthropy and imaginative plans of how to modernize the monarchy, saw his hopes and dreams curdle as he waited and waited to put them into action. The beleaguered flexitarian was allowed to marry the woman he loved only when he was 56 years old. Even with the best prognosis for his cancer, he has been left with a rueful rump of a reign. His sad-sack motto was always “just my luck,” but that has never seemed more true than now.

And William, instead of taking over the Duchy of Cornwall estates in his early 30s and creating a space for the popular Harry to develop a strong portfolio of his own, ended up in a rivalrous relationship with his younger brother that exploded irretrievably when Meghan Markle entered the scene. A less hidebound palace might have come up with a more creative way to solve the Sussex imbroglio.

The fascination of the crown will always be the tension between a venerable institution and the human beings who are trapped inside it. Isn’t it just too cruel to expect modern mortals to live and love and parent in such a blisteringly unforgiving media gaze?

Catherine is battling more — much more — than cancer. A tidal wave of premature responsibility is crashing in her and William’s direction. Frozen, unready and with Catherine now seriously unwell, the Prince and Princess of Wales await the awesome burden of the crown.

More on the British royal family

Tina Brown is the author of “The Diana Chronicles” and “The Palace Papers.”

After The Associated Press issued a kill notification on the botched photoshopped image of a suspiciously glossy Princess of Wales surrounded by her beaming progeny, there was a typical outburst of tabloid pomposity questioning whether Kensington Palace could ever be considered a trusted source of news. Huh? When was the last time any tabloid considered the palace a trusted source of news? As the editor of Vanity Fair in 1985, I wrote a piece revealing that Prince Charles and Princess Diana were having awful marital fights. The palace roundly denied it, and the royal couple denied it in a television interview, confirming in my mind — correctly, as it turned out — that it was all true.

~ Tina Brown, "Heavy Lies the Crown"

[gstqaobc]

CBC NEWS The Royal Fascinator Feb. 7, 2020 Hello, royal watchers and all those intrigued by what’s going on inside the House of Windsor. This is your biweekly dose of royal news and analysis. Reading this online? Sign up here to get this delivered to your inbox. Janet Davison Janet Davison Royal Expert

Who will step up for Meghan and Harry?

(Lefteris Pitarakis/The Associated Press)

It was a striking image that day in June of 2012 — just six people on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, sending a signal widely interpreted to foreshadow a slimmed-down future for the House of Windsor.

It was the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee marking her 60 years as monarch, and joining her on the balcony were her eldest son and heir, Prince Charles; his wife, Camilla; Charles’s two sons, Princes William and Harry; and William’s wife, Kate. (The Queen’s husband, Prince Philip, was in hospital at the time and it would be four years before Harry met his wife, Meghan.)

Charles has long been thought to favour a core group of senior family members to carry the House of Windsor forward in the next reign.

But Harry and Meghan’s departure from the upper echelons of the family leaves a big hole in that plan.

"I think [Charles] envisaged having Harry as part of that,” Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, said via email.

Seward said that along with William and Kate, Charles saw his sister, Princess Anne, and his brother, Prince Edward, as part of the plan.

Harry’s departure “really blows a hole into Charles’s well-thought-out plan for a slimmed-down monarchy based on the core family,” royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith

told Vanity Fair

.

Even though Harry is now down to sixth in the line of succession, he would still have been expected to carry out more senior duties for several years because numbers three, four and five in the succession (William and Kate’s young children, George, Charlotte and Louis) are up to two decades away from being active royals.

“So Charles and William have been counting on Harry to be, in effect, third in line to the throne and that’s all out the window, too,” said Bedell Smith.

Harry and Meghan have been staying out of sight for the past couple of weeks and are thought to be on Vancouver Island, where they were over Christmas before making their seismic departure announcement.

In the meantime in the U.K., it’s been royal business as usual for everyone from the Queen on down. Elizabeth was out and about twice this week —

and reminisced about her father and his corgis

— as her regular winter stay at her Sandringham estate, north of London, draws to a close.

Charles and Camilla were at a reception for the British Asian Trust and other engagements. William, who has a new role as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and Kate were at the British version of the Oscars and did a day trip to Wales.

Observers have been trying to figure out whether there’s any evidence of Harry and Meghan’s departure affecting what other senior members of the family are doing.

But in many ways, that seems to be a stretch — at least for now.

“As official engagements are usually fixed some months in advance and Harry and Meghan’s official departure is not until the spring, I don’t think we have yet seen much direct evidence,” Seward said.

“The crux will come on family occasions and none are scheduled in the immediate future. The future of Harry’s military appointments is obviously under consideration and will be announced as soon as it is decided.”

Still, it all leaves many open questions about how other members of the family may step up their roles. One person seen by many as likely to gain more prominence is Edward’s wife, Sophie, the Countess of Wessex.

“I think Sophie will take on a lot more royal duties and patronages,” said Seward.

And then there are Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, daughters of Prince Andrew, who has stepped down from public duties in the wake of fallout from his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and a disastrous BBC interview related to that.

“I am not sure about Beatrice and Eugenie,” Seward said. “Before all this happened, I know Andrew was keen for them both to have royal roles, but Charles was not.”

Another spring wedding

One thing that is sure for Beatrice — she has a confirmed wedding date and venue. Buckingham Palace said this morning she and fiancé Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi will marry May 29 at the Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace in central London. The Queen will host a reception just up the road, in the gardens behind Buckingham Palace. After a flurry of royal weddings in Windsor over the past couple of years, this promises to be a lower-profile, smaller and more intimate affair — perhaps not surprising given the controversy surrounding Beatrice’s father, Andrew. St. James’s Palace does, however, have a rich royal history. Other weddings that have taken place there include that of Queen Victoria in 1840. It’s also been the scene of several christenings, including Beatrice herself in December 1988, and more recently Prince George in 2013 and Prince Louis in 2018. Andrew and the FBI — what's going on? Prince Andrew was the focus of more attention recently after the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York told a news conference held outside Epstein’s former mansion that Andrew had given “zero co-operation” to the inquiry into the convicted sex offender.Immediately after that, sources close to Andrew were reported as saying he was angry and “bewildered” by the claims he had been unco-operative, and that he hadn’t received any request to speak to the FBI.A lawyer for a victim of Epstein also urged Andrew to co-operate with the FBI.Seward said until an approach is made by the FBI through official channels, “nothing will happen.”“This doesn’t lessen the potential wrong, but he can’t answer anything until his lawyers are contacted, and then they don’t have to answer straight away,” Seward said. “I think he will help the investigation, but has probably been advised to wait until such time as all the necessary evidence as to where he was and what he was doing has been gathered.”Andrew has said he did not see or suspect any sex crimes during the time he spent with Epstein. He has also denied any inappropriate relations with a woman who has said she was forced to have sex with him three times between 1999 and 2002. Andrew has said he has no recollection of meeting her..

Royal angst — beyond the House of WindsorOther royal families have also seen their share of controversy and high-profile headlines in the last little while.The public prosecutor in Luxembourg has launched a probe after reports of physical violence toward staff who work for the tiny European country’s royal family.It was only the latest headline there, coming about a week after Grand Duke Henri issued a statement to defend his wife, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, against allegations of a “hostile working environment” at the palace.“Why attack a woman? A woman who speaks up for other women? A woman who is not even being given the right to defend herself?” Henri said in his statement.Next door, in Belgium, former King Albert II admitted he fathered a child during an extramarital affair half a century ago.The acknowledgement came after a court-ordered DNA test found that the 85-year-old, who abdicated in 2013, is Delphine Boël’s biological father.Boël had been engaged in a longstanding court fight to prove that she is his biological daughter.

Royally quotable

"Yet in 2020, and not for the first time in the last few years, we find ourselves talking again about the need to do more to ensure diversity in the sector and in the awards process – [a lack of diversity] simply cannot be right in this day and age."

—  Prince William

speaks during the British Academy Film Awards

.

Fans of the Netflix drama The Crown will have to content themselves with just five seasons, rather than the six everyone had been expecting. Creator Peter Morgan had said he’d planned on six seasons of the show focusing on Queen Elizabeth’s reign, but the other day he nixed that idea and said five seems like the “perfect time and place to stop.” The way the series is going, that should take viewers up to around the year 2000. Given some of the higher-profile royal controversies of late, perhaps it’s understandable why Morgan is content to stop at that point. “I think there’s concerns the closer you get to the present day, in terms of how much dramatic licence can you ethically take about events that are unfolding,” said Toronto-based royal historian and author Carolyn Harris. “And also, the show would become more controversial if it was speaking about events that are in many ways still unfolding at this time, and imagining conversations behind palace doors.” Season 5 will see another actor take on the role of Elizabeth. Imelda Staunton, who’d long been rumoured for the part, will follow Claire Foy (seasons 1 and 2) and Olivia Colman (seasons 3 and 4).

Royal reads

1. A century before Harry and Meghan, an Italian noble family

sought refuge in B.C. — and stayed

. [CBC]

2. The RCMP and U.K. security officials are

discussing how best to protect Harry and Meghan

while they are in Canada, and who will ultimately pay for their security. [CBC]

3. Harry

lost a press complaint

he filed against a newspaper over a story it published about photos of African wildlife he has posted on Instagram. [BBC]

4. To mark the 200th anniversary of King George III’s death, his

massive collection of military maps

has been made available online, offering insight into global conflicts from the 16th to 18th centuries. Also going back in time,

a vest worn by Charles I at his execution

is going on display.  [The Guardian, BBC]  

Cheers!

I’m always happy to hear from you. Send your ideas, comments, feedback and notes to

royalfascinator@cbc.ca

. Problems with the newsletter? Please let me know about any typos, errors or glitches.

GOOD MORNING ALL, I THOUGHT I WOULD SHARE THE MOST RECENT NEWSLETTER. I HAVENT HAD A CHANCE TO READ IT YET BECAUSE I WANTED TO GETBIT OUT TO THOSE WHO DONT HAVE IT OR KNOW ABOUT IT. GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦🇬🇧🇦🇺🇳🇿  💜💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻PG🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜💜

[quills-and-golden-ink]

Welcome one and all to the second part of the Monthly Guide to Monsters! The talented @downwithwritersblock​ and I have teamed up to bring you some quick and easy guides to some of the world’s most infamous creatures. 

The guide will include: basic background, historical information, abilities, how to defeat them, and portrayals in media. They’ll probably also come with some short stories or prompts! 

For this week, I’ve been tasked with probably one of my favourite mythological beings: vampires. These will be posted on Mondays and Thursdays, excluding this week (since I’ve been busy with stuff). We hope you enjoy! 

Monster Guide #2: The Vampire

Definition: A vampire is an undead or immortal being from folklore that subsists by feeding off the vital force (usually blood) of the living. Vampires are typically creatures that bring about mischief or death. For a long time, vampires were synonymous with demons. Many cultures actually classified vampires as being corpses that were possessed and animated by a demon.

Description: Many early tales described vampires to be bloated; with ruddy, dark, or purple skin, and almost always wearing some kind of dark shroud to hide themselves in (that they usually bring with them from their own grave). It wasn’t until the 19th century, with our more modern day lore that we started to see the classic frail, or gaunt and pale vampires that we have grown used to seeing in the media.

Abilities: These change from culture to culture, although many of them were birthed by Bram Stoker's Novel “Dracula” (which were, btw, super OP). Included are some of the most common abilities associated with vampires (you’ll notice that “glittering in sunlight” is absent because of this). 

Usually immortal, or with at least a very prolonged life span

Increased abilities such as strength, speed, sight, hearing and smell. 

Flight

Some hypnosis, telepathy, illusionary magic. 

Shapeshifting (typically into a bat)

Vampire’s Baptism: the act of healing one with a vampires blood, or turning one into a vampire through mutual biting

Regenerative healing

Immune or really unaffected by conventional or normal means of attack (like being punched, stabbed or shot) 

Night vision

Preventing Vampirism: Vampires eventually caused a bit of hysteria in some cultures, so we see many examples throughout the world of people trying to prevent the rise of the undead.

Some ways found to prevent the rise of a vampire were:

Buried upside down or flipped over.

Some cultures places scythes or sickles beside graves to satisfy the demons they thought would possess the dead. Why? Don’t know but that’s sick. 

Religious symbols, like wax crosses or pieces of pottery with biblical messages like “Jesus Christ Conquers” were commonly placed on corpses to prevent vampirism.

Some took the practical route and decided that separating or destroying the tendons in the legs of the deceased would also keep the dead from rising.

Shooting a bullet through the casket right before burial was also common

Some would put pieces of steel or silver over the corpse’s eyes, in their mouth, in their ears, or in between their fingers.

Pushing Iron needles through the heart was also said to stop a vampire from rising.

Decapitating after death. 

Curing and Killing: 

Garlic was said to keep away vampires

Crucifixes and rosaries were typically said to keep a vampire away.

They could not cross onto sacred or consecrated ground (like a church)

It’s also said they could not cross over running water (no bridges for vampires)

Some folklore says that they lacked shadows and would not show up in a mirror or a photograph (some folklore states that this is a reflection of their lack of a soul, although it could be due to the use of silver in these things)

Sprinkling mustard seeds along the roof of your house was said to keep vampires away, but if it didn't, you’d be alright becauseeee

Vampires, in many myths, could not enter a home without first being invited in. Be careful though, they only need the one invite. After that they might just be able to come and go from your house as they please.

Wild rose stems or hawthorn branches could potentially harm them

In many legends, vampires are warded off, and sometimes even harmed by silver. (Old mirrors were commonly backed with silver, and old photography also used silver specks, which might be the reason they’re not seen in them)

Holy Water or other items blessed by a priest were said to keep them away, and possibly even hurt them.

Vampires were said to be nocturnal, and were very vulnerable or damaged in sunlight. It might have even been able to kill them.

Being set on fire can kill just about everything, and vampires were no exception. 

@downwithwritersblock‘s favourite way to stop a vampire: Arithmomania. An expression or type of OCD in which the person who suffers from it feels compelled to count either their actions or the objects around them.  In many cultures around the world, especially in Eastern Europe and in Asia, it’s said that if you place small seeds (usually poppy seeds), sand or a type of grain like rice beside the grave, or in front of the vampire, they would compulsively have to count it, and that would keep them busy until either you kill them, or until the sunrises and the light kills them for you.

Decapitation was also a very common method in both preventing, and killing vampires.

And of course the most famous of all; A wooden stake through the heart. Many cultures will also tell you that the stake has to be made out of the same kind of wood as the cross that Jesus was crucified on.

History: Here we’ve included two of the most famous “real life vampires” in history! Up first we have...

Vlad Tepes (or as he’s more commonly known: Vlad the Impaler, or Vlad Dracula).

Born between 1428 and 1431 and died in either 1476 or 1477.

He was Prince of Walachia 3 times between 1448 and his death

The second son of Vlad Dracul, who ruled Walachia

Imprisoned in Transylvania, held in Visegrad from 1463 to 1475.

Vlad II got the name ‘Dracul’ when he joined ‘The Order of the Dragon’, a ‘monarchical chivalric order for selected nobility’ in middle Eastern Europe (aka it was mainly Germanic states).

Dracul(a) means ‘Dragon’, and in more modern Romanian it means ‘The Devil’

Vlad III’s prefered method of execution was impalement. Hence the nickname ‘Vlad the Impaler’

Rumours and stories of Vlad spread fast, in fact, books about his cruel acts were best sellers in the German speaking territories.

However, to his own people, Vlad was usually seen as a warrior and a hero.

Bram Stoker was the one to turn Vlad into the legendary vampire with his well known book “Dracula,” published in 1897. It relied on many of the ancient myths of blood suckers found in Romanian folklore. The novel was very loosely based on Vlad, considering Bram Stoker didn't actually know a whole lot about Vlad and Walachia.

Bram Stoker is also among the first to change the traditional vampire into what we know today. His book is, or at least part of the reason that the image of vampires shift into one that is pale and thin, the lack of a reflection or shadow probably starts with his novel as well.

Secondly, we have my favourite: Elizabeth Bathory, aka “The Blood Countess.” 

Considered to be the first female serial killer.

The accusations change a bit depending on the story, but, Elizabeth was a Countess who was accused of taking, torturing and killing hundreds of young girls. She was accused of some pretty gnarly torture methods like covering people in honey and ants, or burning and then dunking people in freezing water, not to mention mutilation. She was accused of cannibalism. She was also said to drink the blood of her victims, earning her the nickname ‘Countess Dracula’. Some also say that as a regular part of her beauty regimen she would drain the blood of young virgin girls, and bathe in it to help keep her young and beautiful. Sometimes I like to call her the inventor of the first bath bomb.

The highest number of victims she was accused of was 650; however, this, like many parts of her story are questionable, and from unreliable or iffy sources.

Vampires in Media: This list is absolutely massive, so I’ve included twelve titles. This includes books, tv shows, and movies, but excludes video games. 

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (TV show, movie, comics)

The Vampire Chronicles/Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice (movie and book)

Carmilla (1871 novel, cute lesbian 2014 youtube series, movie)

The Vampire Diaries (TV Show)

True Blood (Book series, TV show)

Van Helsing (Movie, TV show)

Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897 Novel)

30 Days Of Night (movie)

Twilight (Book series, movie)

The Originals (TV show)

Angel (TV show)

Blade (Movie)

And my personal favourite, which doesn’t fall under any specific monster, is the Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong. Would highly recommend. It’s 13 books in the main series, and features all sorts of awesome and well-known supernatural entities such as (but not limited to): werewolves, vampires, half-demons, witches, sorcerers, demons, angels, and necromancers. Fun 18+ supernatural mystery read (with triggers for violence, gore, and explicit sexual content however. Reader discretion is advised.)

Prompts:

1. “You’re so coldblooded!”

    “Uh, yeah? I literally don’t have any blood?” 

2. “The worst part about being a vampire is not being able to take selfies. Do you know how much I miss looking at my own beautiful face?” 

3. “I suppose the best part of this whole ordeal is not having to spend so much time in the vanity.” 

4. “I’m scared to do my eyeliner.”

5. “Werewolves have it so easy! What’s the big deal with turning into a wolf every once in a while? I’d slaughter a country if it meant I could go outside and enjoy the sun. Even as a four-legged mutt.”

[blogulianatish]

Ascendant in Capricorn. Rising Capricorn

The ascendant in Capricorn (top 1 of the house) forms a complex character, the severity of which directly depends on the spiritual growth of a person – stubbornness and rigidity in communication must be translated into confidence and purposefulness. Obstacles for the native do not exist, and overcoming difficulties is one of the favorite Hobbies. Nativ is born in an environment of increased severity associated with a complex pregnancy or the mother's age (usually over 25 years). The owner of the ascendant in Capricorn is a realist, firmly standing on the ground. For him, the paramount high position in society, for which he works tirelessly and limits himself in entertainment and shopping. Having reached the goal, he will reward his patience with the purchase of real estate and land. Restrained in emotions and distrustful native can relax and reset the protective shell only in a cozy home environment. 

Appearance and behavior

The key features of the character of the ascending Capricorn are strength and ambition on the verge of vanity. He can be a long time in the second role, but sitting in the chair of the chief, blooms, showing the true face of the Lord, at the behest of which the subordinates begin to grab the stars from the sky, which certainly benefits the common cause. Cold-blooded and judicious Nativ believes rapid manifestation of emotions of weakness and is able to keep an icy expression, though in his heart raging volcanic passion. The owners of the ascendant in Capricorn are easily recognized by the imperious look, covered with Arctic cold, and amazing youthfulness: with age they look better than in young years. Depending on the strength of the position of Saturn in appearance and behavior will be expressed certain features: 

1.yellowish tinge to the skin, a triangular face type; 

2.bushy eyebrows, women often have a "mustache" over the upper lip;

3.eyes are small, piercing and serious look, visually making the teenager older than his age;

4.a broad nose, a massive chin, a large nose; 

5.lips medium size, slightly pursed; 

6.hair straight and smooth Nativ prefer to comb them back, opening up his forehead; 

7.a habit to throw in the fingers or back of one cheek during a call; 

8.sit still, in advance taking a comfortable and familiar pose, aesthetically pleasing from the side;

9.clothing – practical, strict classic, expensive and a bit old-fashioned. 

Having achieved material well-being, the Saturnian will not rest on his laurels, but will continue to set new goals, in achieving which he sees the meaning of life. When Saturn is defeated, there are difficulties in expressing feelings: it is difficult to fall in love, the partner's violent emotions irritate. 

The ascendant in Capricorn in a woman

Lady Perfection from childhood used to be the best student of the class or a leader among peers. She's not very sociable and has earned credibility through academic achievements, high status of the parents and strength of character. With age, the power of the owner of the ascendant in Capricorn increases, especially if she fulfills the dream of life – she will get a profession that brings money and prestige in society. Incredible willpower, discipline, hard work and a structured approach to solving problems help her become a significant figure in society, but also form a complex of honors and fear of making a mistake, being in front of everyone in a stupid position. A girl with an Ascendant in Capricorn does not aspire to a marriage of convenience, but can not imagine herself next to a man lower in status or earnings. Even if this snow Queen fell passionately in love, she will never show feelings first, but on the contrary, pretend that she is indifferent to the chosen one. Warm her heart can be a good family man with an ascendant in Cancer, allowing his wife to dominate. A woman-a rising Capricorn – a powerful mother who invests all her strength and resources in the education of children, but rarely speaks words of love. Celebrities – Monica Bellucci, Meg Ryan, Sophie Lauren, Elizabeth II. 

The ascendant in Capricorn in a man

Confident and determined, he embodies the archetype of masculinity: reliable, loyal and intelligent. Since childhood, aimed at leadership and easily achieves it in school and social life. Especially well analytical mind of the owner of the ascendant in Capricorn succumb to technical disciplines. The only drawback of the native – jealousy of the chosen one and rivals in the professional sphere. Wounded ambition often leads to nervous breakdowns, out of which will help finding a tempting goal. The man-the ascending Capricorn does not stop there, despite the conservatism of beliefs and loyalty to the beloved. He is inspired to move forward to even more brilliant successes. Nativ rarely shows the depth of feelings in relationships, and if he is not sure of reciprocity, or even to be cold and arrogant. He prefers to prove love by providing material well-being and fidelity, rather than by beautiful words, which the ascending Virgo, Taurus and Cancer will undoubtedly appreciate. And he is a wonderful father, ready to help and support the child in all endeavors. Celebrities – Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman, Anthony Hopkins. 

Professional success

The owner of the ascendant in Capricorn is easiest to implement leadership in the political, administrative and financial spheres. Prosperity and pleasure from work will also come in the agricultural field, architecture, mining and in the research direction. When harmonious Venus and the moon possible success in the field of medicine, cinema, theatre and literature.

[lady-plantagenet]

A Bygone Era - Chapter 1

A fictionalised account of Isabel Neville’s life from the point of view of her and those close to her.

So far told through the points of view of: Anne Beauchamp 16th Countess of Warwick.

5th September 1451

As each gust of wind veered and swooped around the pointed turrets of Warwick castle, it would not surrender its strength before first claiming a tawny leaf from the hazel trees. The emerald blush of the castle grounds: the summer green that made the tableaux of the landscape ever more poignant just a few months ago, was now fading into a browner more lifeless hue.

Having seen twenty-five summers, the countess was hardly a young lass at the cusp of womanhood. Her half-sister Margaret was six years younger than she when she bore her first child, Elizabeth even more so. Labour was harder for those years past their first flowering. The pain in her back and hips seemed to sting her everytime she drew breath, her head felt uneasy on her shoulders as the exertion of the birth seemed to have pushed all the air out of her. However, there were none to pity her or lay at her feet praising her for the beautiful daughter she had just provided - the Earl of Warwick needed a son.

Even my wretched ladies seem less eager to attend to me. Especially Martha. She thinks herself above me now, for the whelp she bore her minor knight of a husband was a boy.

‘Jesus wept’ snapped Anne ‘may I not be washed and given a morsel of food or even the child?’

A tremble hit Martha and Agnes before they bound down the castle stairs, one with a washbasin nestled under an arm and the other clutching at a gilded platter. Not since she was a little girl had Anne raised her voice beyond a ladylike drone. Those two did not know that, hence the agitation.

‘Begging your pardon milady’ said a breathless Agnes while handing her some bread and salt and Isabel, rosy and clean from the nursemaid’s scrubbing.

Anne tilted her head letting her long auburn tresses fall over into the silver washbowl that Martha brought. While the labour of childbirth was scrubbed off her, she looked at the babe before her. Isabel slowly opened her eyes with a lack of enthusiasm so uncommon to a newborn babe. They were the phantasmagorical green of the turbulent sea.

A beauty that would rally the men of the field to pick up swords and fight god himself it was not.

Though not even an hour unto this world, Isabel’s fair face had no suggestion of roundness, but was a slender oval. The small mouth had a suggestion of full lips and the thin tuft of hair on her head appeared flaxen - though Anne knew it would darken to Richard’s chestnut brown in little time.

A beauty of ice instead maybe. A Despenser, Montacute, Beauchamp and Neville fit for a king or at least a duke who would be immensely drawn to those features, so like those of a statue. Let the golden haired, sky-eyed buxom jezebels catch the eyes of peasant boys and mercenaries. My Isabel shall rouse the very rose of Plantagenet with a face that only generations of careful breeding since the age of the conquest could produce. Because with these she shows herself a daughter of Warwick - and what man would not rally behind that?

At first Anne thought she could hear the pitter-patter of raindrops, but the sound grew sharper resembling a thundercloud heralding a Warwickshire late summer storm.

As the sound of the bailey’s gravel amplified the countess’ entire body shot up so fast that she could feel a surging pain through her spine. The kingmaker had arrived.

The years have proven that the lack of a heir did nothing to dull the earl’s affections for his wife. As he leaped from his horse in one refined movement and took Anne into his arms, she once more felt like a newly wed bride greeting her betrothed outside Bisham Abbey.

She winced as he roughly pulled her into a arduous kiss marvelling at how deliciously crude this gesture was in contrast to his previous elegant one. He may be an earl but he is also a soldier, and above that a man quenching his thirst after months on dry land. And how could he not? At just a couple of inches below his height and still lithe and thin after just moments of childbirth, Anne had the elegance of a water nymph. As Richard was stroking her cheeks he could not help but gaze in awe at the bonny eyes whose colour so much resembled the burnished emerald of her ancestral land.

‘My son how fare he?’ He asked with impatient excitement ‘A strong lad is he not?’

Anne’s chest tightened as if the gusts of wind from a few hours ago were filling her lungs like saltwater would a drowning sailor’s. It is my entire fault. I should never have told him I knew I was carrying a son. All mothers share the same musings about their firstborn, they can not all be right.

‘My Lord husband’ she began adopting a more formal tone ‘It is a girl and I have decided to call her Isabel after mother’

To her relief his smile reappeared. ‘How fitting. The second Lady Isabel Neville’

Anne looked noticeably confused.

‘Ah you do not know then? Isabel de Neville was the daughter and sole heiress of the Norman Geoffrey de Neville and wife of Robert Ritzmaldred a son of the Earls of Northumbria and Etheldred II’ he grinned ‘By the time Lionheart was crowned and fighting his wars in the foreign lands of the east, no one could then gainsay the Plantagenet dynasty so Geoffrey took the Neville name as his own to sit at the high tables of the Norman nobility’

Her husband was so taken up with his tales of Saxon princes and Gospatric of Northumbria that she had to lead him through the great hall and up the winding staircase like a mother hen guiding a sleep-heavy child to its bed. I have done this before she started to remember I was nine and he seven, and we were right here on those stairs. If truth be told my mother had invited Lady Alice to introduce her son as my betrothed in guise of a St Crispin’s day luncheon invitation. By then I have perfected my curtsey and broke the nasty habit of handling my skirts, so I was finally considered worthy of social presentation. They bid me go show him all around the castle grounds and I played hostess thinking I had merely gained another playmate - though he might not have been so easily duped. To think where we are now.

In her apartments Isabel lay satisfied in her cot having just received her milk and with Margaret and the nursemaid hovering over her dotingly.

‘Ah dear wife’ proclaimed Richard ‘it seems her and Margaret would make splendid companions - she had always wanted a sister’. With one small step he picks her up and kisses her on the forehead. The little girl giggled at that, her wide smile squeezing her cornflower blue eyes in satisfied lines.

Ah yes the bastard daughter. Richard’s little indiscretion. The newborn girl that greeted me at Middleham where we first appeared as man and wife, before all our sisters, John and dear Henry- could it really have been eight years past? It feels like just yesterday I buried my dear brother.

Anne became a stone statue as Agnes was at work binding her straight auburn strands into a china blue crespine whose cauls were covered in wide copper netting to complement her Burgundian gown. The dress’ saffron skirts were piercing beams of summer against the burnished autumn hue of the kirtle that latched tightly against her pert chest. The image of his darling wife rushing past the stony keep and into the courtyard seeming more woman than countess with her hair tumbling about her, must have made the earl’s heart wrench with delight for this sun goddess of a woman that he now possessed. I chose his favourite dress, but for that remark I shall choose the most matronly headdress - the one he hates. I shall take it off when he begs my pardon for all this inappropriate cooing over the bastard.

With the classic lack of concern customary of a pre-occupied magnate, Richard did not notice his wife’s minuscule act of defiance. Ever since the death of little Anne two years past, one of England’s greatest earldoms had burdened her husband with its great expectations. Ever since parliament declared her sole heiress over her half-sisters, Richard’s mind was constantly operating in tandem between the world before him and the world next morrow.

Thankfully he eventually sensed the tension surrounding him soon enough to act swiftly and pick up Isabel. The baby’s eyes that only moments ago seemed to lay frozen in her face, lit up with an excitement spreading throughout her whole expression, culminating in a joyful squirm as her father cradled her. Anne started to worry that the disappointment surrounding her sex had started to be rescepted by Isabel. She was now relieved to see the prevention of that.

‘Dear god Anne’ said Richard not tearing his eyes off Isabel ‘What a jewel you have given me’

The heartfelt display thawed the ice that previously had a hold over Anne’s heart as she let out a smiling sigh of relief that after months enraptured in the gripping power plays and intrigues of a royal court, Isabel did not disappoint.

‘As beautiful as her lady mother’ he continued before flashing a knight’s dazzling smile. A smile devoid of vulgarity and void of mummery. A smile so chivalrous that it belonged in Camelot.

He knows to appeal to my vanity the wicked man. Shame on him and his courtier’s tricks.

Before she could damn him further he gently tugged at the hem of her sleeves, bringing her close enough to folder her in his arms with Isabel. She made her peace. ‘Remind me, my sweet, what is the meaning of her Christian name?’ He asked

‘Pledged to God’ Anne smiled ‘As we all are’

‘As we all must be. The war against France has weakened our king. That shrew of a maid of Orleans has marked the demise of any chance we may ever have to hold true power in France’ he started complaining vociferously. And now he recommences. I find it passing incredible how nearly everything I say he takes as a prompt to indulge himself into one of his soliloquies. Today he bemoans England’s fortunes in “the useless war.” ‘... with any luck our recapturing of Bordeaux would at least render this war not a complete loss.’

‘I hear Talbot shall be leading the command. If Gascony were taken back that would bring glory to-’

‘The glory of the Lancastrian rose is of no concern to me Anne’ Richard interrupted suddenly ‘I need this wasteful war to cease so that my father may regain his men and deal with Percy once and for all.’

‘For shame my Lord husband! You mean to tell me you’re heart does not yearn for the chivalry of defeating the lily of France?’ teased Anne playfully ‘Does your heart not beat red for Lancaster and the quest of justice to fulfill their ancestral claims?’

Any other day Richard would respond to Anne’s coyness the way she liked. It was one of their oldest customs. A couple of japes would be passed back and forth always leading to him jokingly proclaiming her a disobedient woman while slowly lifting her skirts and punishing her as if she were an unruly wench eagerly accepting what punishment her lord sees fit. Today something was different and Anne admittedly felt a little more than hurt.

‘Nay wife. Red for the bear and ragged staff. The only cause I believe in. My father was right; this simpleton of a King is incapable of responding to our petitions. We are of royal blood and wardenship of the West March does make us far more capable of keeping Percy tenants in good support. If the Lancastrians of Westminster choose to preoccupy themselves with the lost cause which is the French crown I see no reason to continue blindly serving this line of usurpers.’

Anne froze. Though far from an emotional man, Richard usually delighted in being the cause of his own flights of fury. She would sit on the ledge by the solar windowpanes attentively as he would in his lectures damn half a dozen men and complain endlessly about anything between Beaufort’s incompetence and the treacherous Percys. The series after the Scottish wars was the most heartfelt.

Today’s sermon was delivered in a frigid manner devoid of any of the four humours nor spite. It was the discourse of a man already deep in planning

Choleric or not, Richard was ravenous, downing one slice of capon dipped in melted spiced butter after the other. His return was especially rejoiced by Cook Royce whose pregnant mistress’ cravings for the mundane poussin and squab had left him with no opportunity for great culinary creative expression.

The Goyart tapestries on the soot grey walls of the great hall have been changed for the richer and more sombre Flemish tapestries. Her favourite depicted a fair haired maiden lying sombrely on the juniper grass guarded by maned lions. She pointed her mirror towards the unicorn as if to reveal to him his own magic, though his horn did not reflect in the mirror like the rest of his comely face. Ah the scintillating nature of magic. God reveals himself in ways that elude most. She thought back to all the miracles she thought she had witnessed in her girlhood. Blue roses appearing in winter, the butterfly with transparent wings, even the draft and light from the glass window working in conjunction, turning her to the appropriate page and shining blue light upon the bible passage so her governess would not realise she was not attentive...

‘Ah yes, do you like them Anne? They were part of the Dowager Duchess of Bedford’s dowry, given to the crown in part payment for the dishonour that was her illicit marriage’ Richard said after finally lifting his head from the plate

‘The lady Jacquetta led quite a scandal’ started Anne ‘How is she fareing shacked up with her squire?’

‘Last I heard he was made Baron Rivers’

‘A fanciful title’

‘Still not one a mere country squire merits. I highly doubt it will ever bring in the income to sufficiently maintain the widow of Prince John in the luxury to which she grew accustomed.’

‘The luxury she grew accustomed to as the daughter of Peter of Luxembourg would prove to be the more insurmountable standard for Woodville to reach.’

‘What are you trying to say my lady?’ Richard began teasing ‘Do our English comforts no longer satisfy yours or the Duchess’ lofty needs?’

‘I only say, husband, that just as the Italian duchies are rife with classical art, bards singing dulcet tones and those technologies - whatever they would be, Duke Philip has his own cohort of artists and inventors. The ‘Burgundian School’ is so accomplished our very own John Dunstaple has joined their ranks...’ Richard’s fatigue was waning his attention until his wife stood up from the oak long table and spun around. The flashes of the yellow silk at the skirts extending out with each movement and encircling the amber coloured kirtle as if she were the sun itself come down from the heavens to grace and bring calm to her particularly agitated earl. ‘...and this.’ Anne finished referring to the Burgundian fashions. For dramatic effect she pointed her elbows high to present the same pomegranate pattern adornishing the trimmings of the long jagged sleeves - and as he later noticed - the lining of the deep v-neckline of the dress.

‘Jesus wept’ Richard exclaimed ‘What could have possibly possessed me and drawn me away from noticing the beauty of your gown, for so long?’

By then all the food was dispensed with and the hall was clear of servants. In the privacy of the ancient great hall and enraptured with the smell of fresh rushes the Earl of Warwick drew his wife onto his lap. Anne happily obliged as eagerly as a moth to a flame and threw her arms around his neck tangling her long fingers in his shoulder-length woodland brown hair as she kissed him. Improper public displays like this were a rarity and almost never passed between the Earl and Countess of Warwick, but betwixt the lengthy separation, a wife’s adoration and splendid supper neither could help themselves.

I see Isabel’s birth has not made him wroth at me. Perchance he will one day grow to love her as much as I do.

As if capable of reading her mind Richard drew her in even closer for a longer more ardent kiss. Not the polite type a knight would give his elusive ladylove.

‘No verbalisation of mine could ever express my gratitude for your birthing of such a perfect babe, I shall love Isabel as dearly as others love their sons’

‘God will give us a son soon my love, I promise you that....’ Anne started

‘Even if he does not, lest we forget the running tradition of female heiresses in both our lines’ Richard gently said while his fingers traced the hem marking the end of Anne’s kirtle and the tender skin above her breasts. It was no secret that her vast inheritance served as a point of pride for her husband; few knew it was also an aphrodisiac. ‘The finest men in the kingdom will vie for her hand in marriage’.

Anne nestled her weary head in the crook of his neck adjusting so the sharp corners of her caul do not dig into his neck before saying ‘She is too young to even contemplate such a thing.’ She was playing the doting mother. I would not admit to anyone that just hours after her birth I had been lining up a list of names in my head. Most women would think that only shrews and wicked mothers work in that way. But these women were not born to be heiresses like I was and Isabel is. Her and I are of a different breed.

‘Margaret of Anjou is taking very young girls into her service nowadays. Jacquetta Rivers’ eldest Elizabeth had been appointed lady-in-Waiting since she was just ten and three’

‘It never ceases to amaze me how many lives those Woodvilles have’ Anne chortled ‘not even the biggest scandal of Christendom could bar them from the court or king’s favour.’

‘For all of Lady Rivers’ ambitions this is the highest her or any of her brats could ever rise to. For all her fabled beauty, last I heard Elizabeth is pre-contracted to marry a modest Leicester knight like her father. Now just imagine the great marriages Isabel will have to choose from, when the time comes for her to be brought to court’ said Richard

‘Just imagine’ replied Anne wistfully ‘the greatest lady of the land - second only to the Rose of Anjou herself.’

Read the other 4 Chapters here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22268239/chapters/53175664

[rz-rosszogg]

The Queen is dead. God save the Queen. Our Australian Queen, that is..which happens to be German, Scottish, English by blood..and also happens to be British Queen as well as to number of other English dominions.

In 1969 we, embassy people from many different countries, all went to a party at Buckingham palace..an annual diplomatic party, usually performed in those days by the British palace. Most embassies in London were invited, including all Socialist countries. The general western public would be shocked, but the British palace was on friendly terms with Communists from around the world. I guess as prime diplomats, the Royals understood that people are people everywhere. And that good relationships and proper conduct, meaningful respect, expression of understanding works much better for World Peace and prosperity, than all the hate, fear, bad behaviour and bad attitude, we have right now from western politicians and media. Today, the western rulers all look like soaking children.. bad loosers awaiting a final blow.

In Australia, most people in recent times, want an independent republic.. but the ruling class is scared and makes sure that fear rules the minds of ordinary people, when voting on the issue. If left to Royalists, Australia would still be a British bunch of colonies, instead of a land belonging to free people.. a land, it must always be stated, belonging to Aboriginal people for at least 50,000 years. White British invaders came here on genocide mission, only about 234 years ago.. the British monarchy itself, is only about one thousand years old.. too young to know any better, when compared to older Asian, African and Eastern European countries and cultures.

White Australia became a convict land, of two white classes: the convicts, dinky-die Ozzies; and the wowsers, army prison guards.. the new Oz ruling class.. Aboriginal people were not included in population counts, for many years.. they are still excluded from prosperity and many freedoms white Australians have.. Yes, still the case today.. as one travels throughout the vast Australian land, one is immediately struck by seeing two very different countries.. meaningful way of living; A very wealthy white part, and very poor black part, all these living in it call; the third world.

So, today on the 8th of September 2022, most Aboriginal Australians would not pay much attention to the death of a white monarch, which always represented invasion, death, genocide. And who can honestly blame them.. as all life on Earth is equal in value, to all the people in possession of true human spirit.

Farewell Elizabeth II.. RIP. In Australia, we had our fill of Royals.. Now, we want our vast continent, as a Free Republic, in service of all our free people.

Just like all other European monarchies, the British one is forsaken. Only uneducated and misinformed people keep repeating old tapes of royal glamour and vanity. These people aren't free.. but servants of false gods and false rulers.. just by blood, and often inbreeding. It shocks the educated mind, to hear from western media that such and such royal is responsible for the welfare and achievements of an age and of a society. These types of people value slavery, oppression, and domination of all 'commoners' by a crown, just one family, one class, one regime bent on violence, if it need to be retaining power and privilege of all that really matters. But instead of this truth, the famous British Hypocracy employs all western media propaganda, to paint a picture of godly representatives on Earth.. of motherly care and love.. and fatherly strength from tradition.. a picture of servants and slaves, confusing all who have a little independence left in their mind and heart.