ELIZABETH CRAVEN AND HER WORLD

This stunning painting is currently for sale in a French gallery and is attributed to Sophie de Tott. It is described simply as a "female portrait" and according the sale description is identified as her work by a signature "Sophie C. Tesse de Tott" in the lower right.      Another website describes the painting as a portrait of Sophie herself but this could be a confusion. People are still so unused to female artists that someone may have jumped to the conclusion that the painter's name was that of the sitter. The costume suggests the period c.1800 when Sophie would have been aged about 42, somewhat older than the sitter appears to be. Another portrait by de Tott that is reproduced on the internet is that of Maria, Lady Crauford. This fine imposing painting was displayed at the Royal Academy in London in 1803. It depicts the sitter in the guise of a Sibyl, traditionally portrayed wearing a Turkish style turban and robes.  Maria Teresa Gage (1762-1832), wife of ...

Raphael Sóne's The Corisco Conspiracy is a historical novel based on the life of Shakespeare. Bold and inventive far beyond any other version of Shakespeare's life, it speculates that he was a Catholic secret agent who enlisted in the Armada invasion army and later took an active rôle in the Gunpowder Plot. This Shakespeare travels widely from his teenage years onwards, not only to Italy, Spain and Portugal but as far as the island of Corisco off the coast of Equatorial Guinea, an idyllic place which might have inspired Prospero's Isle in The Tempest . He works alongside Guy Fawkes, Robert Catesby, Father John Gerard, S.J., Dr Roderigo Lopez and double agent Christopher Marlowe. He carries secret messages and visits Catholic prisoners in their cells in the Tower of London. He takes part in schemes to abduct and even assassinate Queen Elizabeth. He's hauled before the Privy Council on sedition charges and he also finds time to act in the theatre now and again. In this no...

   Stephanie Barron has brought out what must sadly be the last in her series of mystery stories featuring Jane Austen.    Her readers will not be disappointed. It is a good story that is once again based on meticulous research into Austen's life, and that of her family, friends and their connections.    It centres on Winchester College, the public school attended by half a dozen of Austen's nephews, and the son of one of her close friends friends, Elizabeth Heathcote. Like most such establishments, it was very prestigious, steeped in tradition and in many respects utterly barbaric. Boys were frequently beaten with rods not only by the masters but by the prefects, senior boys who lorded it over new arrivals and treated younger boys like servants. Pranks were the norm and even severe bullying was regarded indulgently as rough-and-tumble that would teach the boys to stand on their own feet and make men of them.     The safety standards were about as...