Still More Fun With Research
Still more fun with research that has pretty much nothing to do with New Orleans at Christmas of 1840, or Hollywood in May of 1924... (or the Winterlands while I'm writing a Further Adventure for the first time in AGES...) Instead I've been reading Katie Hickman's wonderful book, "Daughters of Britannia," about the lives and experiences of British diplomatic wives and daughters - the ladies who got dragged willy-nilly to places like Constantinople in 1661 (What WAS the proper etiquette when calling on the Sultan's harem?) or Kashgar, Central Asia, in 1898 (COULD one purchase Marmite in Azerbaijan?). These ladies were not diplomats themselves, but got roped into doing everything from coping with local servants (" 'Why do grammars only teach one such phrases as Simply through the courage of the champion's sword when what one wants to say is, Bring another lamp? ' ") to sewing shirts for British sailors who have been ransomed from the loc...
