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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 19th January
Sorry this is a bit late, I’ve been putting in new skirtingboard in the kitchen in preparation for the new flooring. The kitchen is already warmer – no gaps between wall and floor for draughts. Anyway, back to the party. There are still two birthday girls left for today, after yesterday’s early aperitif, but let’s…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 18th January
No birthday girl today, but three tomorrow, so let’s get in an early celebration of Patricia Highsmith (19th January 1921). Highsmith is one of those people I admire without much liking. I don’t enjoy her crime novels, and consider them sadistic. However she was a bit of a trail blazer with her novel Carol (aka…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 15th January
Today we are lighting the candles on the cake for author Mazo de la Roche, born Louise Roche in 1879 in Canada. Mazo was the author of the Jalna novels, and said that the (male) character Finch was based on herself. She lived with Caroline Clement for 75 years. Caroline was an orphaned cousin adopted…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 14th January
Today’s birthday belongs to Jane Welsh Carlyle, 1801-1869. The only thing that makes one place more attractive to me than another is the quantity of heart I find in it. So, if you look Jane up on the web, you might wonder what she’s doing here, one of those archetypal good wives, you might think,…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 12th January
No famous birthday today, but three for tomorrow so let’s celebrate Carolyn Gold Heilbrun (aka Amanda Cross) January 13, 1926 – October 9, 2003 a day early. She’d probably quite like getting in early, she never was one for conventions. Described as the Mother of feminist academia (personally not sure I’d want to be described as…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 11th January
Another date with no dame. So here is Jane Anger. Possibly a pseudonym, possibly her real name, but whoever she was she had a way with words once she got a head of steam on, and went into print in 1589 in defence of women, in response to a scurrilous pamphlet, defiantly entitling her broadsheet…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 10th January
That enchantress, Abigail Hill Masham. Here’s a nice obscure lesbian for you – no birthdate, (best guess 1670’s) but sufficiently influential because of her relationship with Queen Anne to have caused quite a furore in her lifetime. If you know anything about Queen Anne and her female friends, then it is probably Sarah Churchill you…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 9th January
January 9th – Simone de Beauvoir‘s birthday, but she’s not invited to the party. Sometimes you know too much about a person to find them appealing. Instead, let’s have Aisha bint Ahmed al-Qurtubiyya I’ve no idea when her birthday is, as she was born in Córdoba, Spain in 965 and died in either 999 or…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 7th January
No-one is owning up to being born on 7th January, so another ‘who knows?’ And because it’s wild weather I thought we’d go for a pirate. Mary Read. Cross-dressing lover of Anne Bonny, and several men, a proper swashbuckler, served in the King’s army, ran a pub and later became a pirate, but no one…
Cherry Potts, Writer 