"It was imprudent of us, in the first place, to become authors. We could have become something regular, but we managed not to.
We were lucky, but we were also determined." Roy Blount Jr

"I don’t change the facts to enhance the drama. I think of it the other way round, the drama has got to fit the facts,
and it’s your job as a writer to find the shape in real life."
Hilary Mantel

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Live Blogging from the BL

I'm live-blogging from Seat 335 in the Rare Books & Music Reading Room of the British Library, simply because I can! Earlier this year they instigated free wi-fi for readers.

I've got here a heap of leather-bound tomes, some more than 300 years old. A combination of items connected with low life and high life:

A Description of the Duke's Bagnio, 1683

Letter to a Gentlewoman Concerning Government, 1697

Love for Money, or the Boarding School, 1691

Life of the Late Celebrated Mrs. Elizabeth Wisebourn vulgarly call'd Mother Whybourn (a notorious madam!)

London in 1710, 1934 edition

Court & Society from Elizabeth to Anne, 1865

When I've done with these, more are waiting!


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