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 18th
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 18th 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 18th. Century your favourite era?
The 18th
century and early 19th 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 18th 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 18th 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 18th
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.
