Author in the picture: Sarah Murden

First of all: thank you very much for participating in your “Author in the picture” blog on my bookblog. I’m very happy I may interview you because I’m always enjoying your books (I read All Things Georgian and the Dukes of Bolton) as well as your All Things Georgian Blog on this link.

The Books of Sarah Murden and Joanne Major are all available on Kobo Plus!

 

Questions and Answers

Who is Sarah Murden and when did you start writing & blogging?

I’m an 18^th century historian, genealogist and host of the blog All Things Georgian and have co-authored 5 nonfiction books with Joanne Major, all featuring people from the Georgian period. We began All Things Georgian a few years ago, in fact at the same time as we began writing, but I’ve been hosting it alone now for about 18 months.

 

Could you tell me more about your blog and books?

The blog takes a brief look at people, places and events in the Georgian period. To date there are over 600 articles in there everything from fashion to sport, to crime, the list is endless. I look at how people lived in the 18^th century, those who were famous or infamous to those you’ll never have heard of, but have an interesting story to tell, so in their absence I try to give them a voice. There’s quite a few about women, as I feel that it’s time they had more prominence in history.  

The books we have written are ‘An Infamous Mistress’, which is the biography of the courtesan, Grace Dalrymple Elliot and her family. The book which, although standalone, follows on from that is ‘A Right Royal Scandal’ which is about the next generations of Grace’s family and has links to our present royal family. The third one, is ‘A Georgian Heroine’ and is about a long forgotten Georgian woman, Rachel Charlotte Williams Biggs, who was abducted and assaulted by a would-be suitor, she manages to escape and reinvented herself into a sort of British spy in France, reporting back to the government and also, almost singlehandedly organised the gold jubilee for King George III. Our fourth book is ‘All Things Georgian’. This one isn’t a biography, but a collection of short stories written in the same format as the blog, so a book to dip into with just a chapter on each person/event, with plenty of glossy images too. For our latest book we have returned to a biography format, this one is ‘The Dukes of Bolton 1600-1815’ which takes a look at the Dukes of Bolton, in North Yorkshire over a period of just over 200 years, their role as British aristocrats during that period, their allegiance to the monarchy as well as the loves of their lives.

 

Why is the 18^th. Century your favourite era?

The 18^th century and early 19^th century were times of great change, both socially and economically, with developments in art, music, literature and science. With so such change taking place it provides a plenty of scope for someone like me to bring some of this information into the public domain, especially as it’s a period of history that is often ignored. The old newspapers of the time make for fascinating reading and that’s where I get much of my source material from.

 

Which history characters are your favourite ones?

I don’t have favourites as such, but if pushed, I’d have to that given that my tendency to focus on women’s history of the 18^th century, then I’d probably say Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, for her beauty and taste in fashion and about whom you can find out more in Dr Amanda Foreman’s book, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire; Lady Seymour Worsley née Fleming, for the gossip and scandal surrounding her, likewise, you can learn about her in Hallie Rubenhold’s book, The Scandalous Lady W and then Lady Mary Wortley Montagu for being brave and wise enough to have her 3 year old daughter inoculated against smallpox, setting a trend that would benefit the world, whose life can be read in a brand new book written by Jo Willett, The Pioneering Life of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: Scientist and Feminist. All very different characters, but all fascinating in their own way.

What do you like the most about history? The scandals, the stories, the people, the palaces …. ?

I have to confess, although rather superficial I know, I do enjoy a bit of gossip from the 18^th century. There’s nothing more fun than a juicy piece of scandal to delve into, especially when it relates to women’s history and if possible, I do like to try to determine the facts from the fiction.

 

How does a typical writing/blogging day look like at your place?

When I used to research with Joanne it worked really well, as I’m an early bird and for me research/ writing at 5am is a regular occurrence, whereas Jo preferred a late start and would go on into the early hours of the morning, so it was quite common for my first email of the day to be one sent late at night by Jo, saying ‘Urgent’ or ‘Read me now’ when she’d found something really interesting. Working alone now though, the schedule remains the same, I’m always at my best early morning, with copious amounts of caffeine at the side of me. Then it’s head down and start with the days research, which rarely ends as I had planned, as I easily get distracted by anything that catches my eye, usually from an old newspaper and that ends me off down a proverbial rabbit hole to find out more. I find that I need peace and quiet to concentrate, so I’m lucky enough to live in rural Lincolnshire where I can enjoy the countryside views from my desk and spot the occasional bird of prey hovering overhead, or a muntjac running across the field, or be deafened by the amazing, RAF Typhoons flying over throughout the day.

 

What’s on your to-read and to-do list?

Oh goodness, I have so many books on my to-read list I wouldn’t know where to begin with that one, apart from that I’d like to learn more about 18^th century fashion so there are plenty to choose from on that subject. There are so many great books I really must make time to read, but if I’m being totally honest, I have little time to read for pleasure as most of my reading these days is purely for research.

Have you always wanted to become an historian/genealogist? 

Yes, definitely. I’ve always been interested in history and grew up within a few minutes of Lord Byron’s home, Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire, which I visited regularly, so it seemed inevitable that 18th century history was my thing and my degree allowed me to build on that interest. I also thoroughly enjoy genealogy and that helps when trying to build a picture of someone’s life, as well as finding unknown facts about people

 

Do you have hints for beginning bloggers and authors?

Find a subject you’re passionate about and either set up your own website or use something like WordPress, which is what I use for All Things Georgian, and get writing. When we began writing the blog it was really just a place to put information that was superfluous to the book we were working on, we didn’t really think anyone would read it … but much to our amazement they did, and to date there are over 600 articles on there and over 1.5 million people have read it, which is mind-blowing, we hoped that maybe half a dozen people might be interested in our scribblings, how wrong we were. Make sure you also promote your blog on social media platforms so that people know who you are and what you write about. Again, for potential authors write about a subject that you’re passionate about and when you’re ready try to find a publisher – easier said than done though, but persevere, or, as many people do now and try the self-publishing route.

 

I always end with the same question: What are your dreams/wishes for you and the world?

Right now, I’m just incredibly pleased to have survived this past dreadful year and my hope for the world is that life will eventually return to some form of normality.

To know more about Sarah

Check the blog: all things Georgian on this link 

Sarah Murden is on Twitter on this link. @sarahmurden

Sarah Murden is on Amazon on this link.