Danielle Burton, Historian's Newsletter
February 2025 Edition
What a month January was. I don’t know about you, but it really does feel like it’s been the longest month. We have just had a terrible storm here in the UK. Thankfully where I live, it wasn’t as bad as other parts of the country, but it’s still been very windy.
Throughout January, I have been quite busy with talks. In total, I have done five:
Anthony Woodville: Sophisticate or Schemer? – Talk for Burton and South Derbyshire College, Wednesday 8th and Wednesday 15th January 2025
Eleanor Coade and Her Artificial Stone- Talk for Ashbourne U3A Landscape and Heritage group, Friday 17 January 2025
Charles Dickens: Champion of the Poor?, talk for Bingham U3A History group, Wednesday 22nd January 2025
Napoleonic Prisoners of War in Chesterfield- talk for Rainworth Local History U3A, Friday 24th January 2025
All of these were for groups I hadn’t spoken to before and were all lovely experiences and hopefully some future bookings from some of them too. However, February is so far set to be a quiet month, with only one booking to talk on Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, for a charity coffee morning group that I have been working with for nearly three years now.
The thing that has surprised me the most since doing history talks for the last two years is that, despite being my debut history book topic, Anthony Woodville isn’t my most popular talk. Still, as my first royalty cheque came through for my book this month, it finally makes the sales end for Anthony Woodville feel real. In terms of my talks, it is actually another Anthony, Anthony Babington, who set up a plot named after himself, that ultimately resulted in the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, that seems to be the most popular topic. The one on Charles Dickens mentioned above is also a fairly popular one too.
The regular posts have restarted back on the Voyager of History blog too, the first full ones since before Christmas. At the beginning of the month, I was pleased to welcome Jeb Smith, an author and historian, as a guest blogger. His guest post on the topic of Papacy in the Middle Ages can be viewed here. My own post for January was on a topic I mention in my Charles Dickens: Champion of the Poor talk, which I have been wanting to write for a while now. It is on Prince Albert and his role in early forms of social housing in Britain. You can view that here.
Looking on to February, there should be some interesting blog posts coming up. The next one should be on President Andrew Jackson and his cheese. I know, sounds a bit random, but it does involve a giant cheese the President was gifted, so should be more interesting than it sounds.
As we move into the, hopefully, better weather and lighter days, it means that my Georgian Derby and Belper tours should be nearly ready to be back up and running. They will either start nearer the end of February, or in March, as the routes I use are very weather dependant. I will see what things are like closer to the time and will make a special newsletter announcement when I know what things are like a bit more. Whenever that does happen, I hope to see some of you on the tours.
Don’t forget, if you or a group you know, would prefer a private tour, then please do contact me via email at xdanielle2012x@yahoo.com. These are available for numbers of 4 or more people and a maximum of 15 on the Derby route, or 10 on the Belper route. Any private tour will also benefit from a discounted rate and dates and times can be arranged to suit you.