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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 31st January
Lets have a big hand and a whoop or two for Miss Tallulah Bankhead 1903-1968. Tallulah (her real name!) was a good actor who played a lot of bad women and I found this hilarious quote from Carl Elliot I fear Tallulah has suffered from the sometimes swashbuckling, sometimes naughty characters she played on stage…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 30th January
Today we celebrate Anne Clifford 30 January 1590 – 22 March 1676 I actually have a copy of her diary tucked away somewhere, but I haven’t yet got round to reading it. She had a bit of a tough time, her first husband Richard Sackville Earl of Dorset forced her to entertain his mistress at…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 29th January
Today’s birthday belongs to Robin Morgan, who is my first living invitee to the party. I did consider keeping it strictly historical, but she had and has such a big impact it seemed unreasonable to leave her out. Robin is the editor of Sisterhood is Powerful, (1970) one of those books that change the world,…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 28th January
Here’s a woman not afraid to call a spade a bleeding shovel. Born in 1695, Anne Stainton went to Virginia (famous as a hunting ground for women in search of a husband) with her sister who was married to William Gooch, the colonial governor. She described herself as Two and thirty years of Age, Ugly…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 27th January
Another day another no show – no birthday and I’m late posting the birthday card too. So standing in for 27th January is Mary Ann Talbot 1778-1803 also known as John Taylor, a famous cross dresser – so famous someone tried to impersonate her and was arrested for it! Mary Ann was raped and forced…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 26th January
Today’s birthday belongs to Elizabeth Percy (26 January 1667 – 24 November 1722) the last of Queen Anne’s intimate lady friends. Elizabeth was one of the richest heiresses of her time and as such was the centre of many intrigues. She was married at 12 to Henry Cavendish, widowed at 13 and married again aged…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 25th January
Well my dears, unless you don’t look at twitter etc at all, I suppose it might have escaped your notice that today’s birthday is celebrated on behalf of the magnificent Virginia Woolf. I hope she needs no introduction? I’ve had her picture on my wall for about thirty years. If you don’t know who she…
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Forthcoming Publication – Earthshaker
A bit of good news this morning, my story Earthshaker has been accepted for Holdfast’s Beasts edition due out in March (I think!)
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 24th January
Once more, no candidate for the 24th January, so here is Catalina de Erauso 1585 – 1650ish – cross-dresser, soldier, adventurer, aka Antonio de Arauso, Alonzo Dias, the nun lieutenant. A word of warning: Catalina’s ‘memoirs’ weren’t published until the 19th Century. I’ve read two translations of what seem to be the same passage that…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 23rd January
Yes, I know, it’s a day late. I was singing all right? My and A’s first night at Orpheus & Eurydice, and a fun time we had, threatening the audience as furies. Hissed myself hoarse. Now in bed with a cold, but determined to throw it off by tomorrow lunchtime and the next performance. Anyway,…
Cherry Potts, Writer 