The Story Of The Travelling Red Dress

Today's post is somewhat unusual. But I'm not going to apologise in the slightest. Not so long back, I came across something online called The Travelling Red Dress, an idea set up by the fantastic Jenny Lawson:

"I want, just once, to wear a bright red, strapless ball gown with no apologies. I want to be shocking, and vivid and wear a dress as intensely amazing as the person I so want to be. And the more I thought about it the more I realised how often we deny ourselves that red dress and all the other capricious, ridiculous, overindulgent and silly things that we desperately want but never let ourselves have because they are simply “not sensible”. Things like flying lessons, and ballet shoes, and breaking into spontaneous song, and building a train set, and crawling onto the roof just to see the stars better. Things like cartwheels and learning how to box and painting encouraging words on your body to remind yourself that you’re worth it."

The idea is to wear a vivid red dress just for the hell of it, to wear something that reminds us that we are special, that we are worth it and that we shouldn't be embarrassed to wear something that will make us feel as amazing as we really are. And do you know what? As I stood in that photography studio, I did feel amazing. The whole experience was just completely mind blowing, the photographer really put me at ease and made it so much fun. It was so nice just to let loose and really be myself for a bit; I'm not going to lie, the past few months have been rather difficult for me health wise so it was nice to just let my hair down and have some fun while wearing this absolutely spectacular red dress.

Not only that, the whole experience has made me feel better about myself. I wore the hell out of that dress and it has made me realise I can do anything. It made me realise that I can get the book written that has been in my head for the longest time, it made me realise that I shouldn't let the stress get to me so much. It made me realise that I should just do those things that I never thought I could do before, that I should just have fun, that there is no harm in me letting my hair down. And now I can send the dress on to another fabulous lady and make her feel as special as she really is!

I just wanted to say a massive thank you to Claire for sending me this spectacular gown, and really making my day; and to Jenny "The Bloggess" for coming up with this fabulous idea. I couldn't have done this without either of you.

Now, the travelling red dress is up for grabs. Please do contact me via email if interested. The dress is a UK size 12!

And now back to your regularly scheduled history blog posts......

A Quick Catch Up - Various Historical Ramblings

It's been a while since I've sat down and written a proper blog about anything. I blame work. No really I do. Also I blame the fact that I've been busy working away at editing my book, which I am slightly behind on because of said work. But never mind. I shall pick the manuscript back up tomorrow evening and try not to drown it in my English Civil War/Stuart family tears.

If I'm perfectly honest I don't even know why I'm sitting here typing this because it will most likely have nothing to do with anything remotely historical whatsoever. I suppose I just felt like checking in with you all and saying hello. Oh, and telling you what historical shenanigans I've been up to this past week - wait, didn't I just say this would have nothing historical? Oh well.

So, on Thursday 14th I wrote that whole post on the death of Juan Borgia, and after I saw the lovely David Oakes tweet about it being the 515th Anniversary of Juan's death I may have, sort of, tweeted him about the piece I wrote. And a couple of days later, as I switched on tweetdeck a little thing popped up in my mentions list. I may have sat there in shock for a good few minutes before squealing at my partner: OH MY GOD DAVID OAKES RETWEETED MY JUAN POST. HE MUST HAVE READ IT AND LIKED IT!!!! Yeah, I may have gotten a little bit overexcited, I'm not sorry one bit.

It's probably not very clear in the screen shot but it says "retweeted by David_Oakes". Now for those of you who don't know, or who haven't seen Showtime's "The Borgia's", David Oakes plays Juan Borgia, second son of Rodrigo Borgia - or as he is more often known "Alexander VI". Now then I won't spoil season 2 for those who haven't seen it, but let's just say that David did an utterly astounding job portraying the history of Juan, despite the inaccuracies of the time lines etc. I found myself in floods of tears seeing Juan's downward spiral, yet at the same time I loved his sass. Honestly, if you haven't seen The Borgias, please do check it out because it is fantastic, albeit not hugely accurate. But hey, it is entertainment after all, and very well done entertainment!!

I may have gone a little bit mad on books this past week. A few weeks ago I went on a bit of a spree buying a ton of books on Minette Stuart, just because I love her and all, and I may have ended up buying a few more than I should have...

The two lying cover up are two that I brought myself on Tuesday from a bookshop when I was on the way back from the hospital. I felt like cheering myself up after a diagnosis of Coeliac disease (I'm not going to go into it too it here as y'know this is a history blog and all but let's just say that things weren't entirely clear from the doctor and they said it was "mild" and I had to cut down on my gluten intake and it runs hand in hand with my type 1 diabetes. Excellent. They didn't tell me that changing my diet to mainly gluten free would really play around with my blood sugars, but still, different story for a different day) and I ended up spending £35 on two books. BUT IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT! The books spine up are mainly all on Minette, except the two on the left which are dedicated to my favourite couple in history; Charles I and Henrietta Maria, and the biggest bad ass woman on the planet Caterina Sforza!

And then yesterday, this little beauty arrived! I'm not going to lie, but I have a bit of a thing for the Earl of Rochester aka John Wilmot aka the man who wrote the most obscene play of the Seventeenth Century. Have any of you seen The Libertine with Johnny Depp? If not, why not? I ADORE IT SO MUCH! I also adore Rochester. The other day I sat down and read his entire obscene play in a matter of hours, and I loved every minute of it. And no, not because if was Seventeenth Century pornography...but because I thought it was freaking hilarious and also provided an excellent commentary to Rochester's feelings on the court of Charles II. Does that sound a bit presumptuous? Maybe. I'm not sorry.

Tomorrow I'm planning on visiting Winchester when I finish work. I went to University in that gorgeous city and haven't been since my graduation. It's going to be amazing to get back there. The town has such a magical quality for me, mainly for its history. The city has been there for centuries, and even has an Iron Age hill fort on its outskirts. I have many fond memories of St Catherine's Hill, particularly sitting up there one very cold November evening watching various firework displays. My main interest in the city lies in its ties to the English Civil War - the city itself changed hands many sides during the War (which is worth a blog post on its own), and the Cathedral shows a lot of English Civil War damage in the interior, caused by Parliamentarian Soldiers. Not only that but the famous Round Table, hung in the Great Hall of Winchester Cathedral, also suffered Parliamentarian vandalism after they burst into the Hall and shot at the table with their muskets! My main plan tomorrow is to have a slow wander around the Cathedral and soak in its atmosphere - I adore the place and find it very peaceful, plus the history held in the building helps. I also have a plan to light a candle for a close friend of mine who recently passed away. There are two statues by the entrance of James I and Charles I both of which have musket damage which I am particularly interested in revisiting. And for those Tudor fans, Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester is also buried within the walls. I will return with lots of pictures. I should also hopefully be meeting up with an old friend from Uni for pints which is always fun!

And if I'm honest there hasn't been much historical fun going on for this past week. I still blame work. I've mainly been reading a book that is so far from history based you wouldn't even believe it. For anyone who cares, I've been reading "Let's Pretend This Never Happened" by Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess and it has to be one of the best non history books I've ever read. It's not often an autobiography has me laughing so hard that tears run down my face, but this book was fantastic. Not only that but between the hilarity there were also some very serious moments that provided a very stark insight into mental illness. It is a fantastic book, very funny and very very frank. I would recommend it to anyone, whether they are into this type of book or not. I've also been working my way through "Restoration London" by Liza Picard which reads like a more serious version of Ian Mortimer's "A Visitor's Guide to Medieval England" and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I am learning so much more about what the normal citizens of London in the 1660's would have lived like and it is rather nice coming at the era from the "bottom up" as it were...

And my old A-Level teacher would be so proud of me for using the term "bottom up" in a sentence about history.

Kindley Sort of Feelings

I can't believe I've done this...

Last night I brought myself a kindle...

For the longest time I was so against the Kindle it was unreal. Both my mum and my sister got one a couple of Christmases ago and were raving about how awesome they were, and how I should get one because of all the free book goodness and it holds huge amount of books and is lighter than lugging a library around with you. But I was quite happy with my paper books, thank you very much. Instead I scoured charity shops for used books and raided Amazon marketplace of their cheap books.

But then I got some news. News that I will have to keep very hush hush until I'm allowed to say something but it is exciting. VERY EXCITING. That and I realised that my bookcases (yes, plural) were fit to burst and I just didn't have any more room for normal books. Oh, and I found Samuel Pepys' diary as a free Kindle e-book as well as a plethora of historic non fiction goodness, all for free or if not free then relatively cheap.

So last night, I sat there and went against everything I had ever believed in and brought myself a kindle. I didn't go for the super duper all singing, all dancing 3g touch screen one because I don't need it. And I don't need a keyboard either, so I just got the bog standard kindle that can fit 1.500 books on it. And it was relatively cheap too, considering as how many books you can fit on it. And the best thing is I don't have to worry about breaking the bank on books because looking through the amazon site, they are so cheap. I have spent an absolute fortune on books in the past year, so this will be a great opportunity for me to save some much needed mulah and keep my library growing. Oh don't get me wrong, I will ALWAYS prefer paper books and keep on growing the library that I will eventually have on display in my very own office when I'm lecturing in some university but for now, this will do nicely.

And I won't have to lug a billion heavy books with me when I go to Rome.

Which has to be a good thing.

I do however have to apologise to my future Kindle for all the history feels it will have sobbed all over it, particularly when it comes to my wonderful English Civil War and Restoration. Oh, and when I download Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel, which will be one of the first things I buy for it. And novels. I don't read enough novels.

I'm a little nervous about how I'll feel about it when it arrives. Right now I kind of hate the fact that I've gone against myself and got myself one when I was so vehement about them before. Who knows, maybe I'll fall head over heels in love with it in time.