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Author Gabrielle Kimm on researching historical novels

Gabrielle Kimm

A warm welcome to Gabrielle Kimm, who is on a blog tour with her new book The Girl with the Painted Face. She's dropped by to Book Club Mum to tell us what it's like to be a historical writer...

Thank you so much for inviting me onto your blog!

I’m often asked why I’ve chosen to write historical novels – and there’s a simple answer. It’s all because of Victorian poet, Robert Browning.

BOOK CLUB REVIEW: Revenge Wears Prada (Lauren Weisberger)

This was chosen as a good light-hearted summer read and as such, the consensus was: it delivered.

A sequel to the phenomenally successful The Devil Wears Prada, the story catches up with our heroine Andy Sachs ten years after her tumultuous stint as assistant to the infamous Runway magazine editor Miranda Priestly.

The original book was adapted for the big screen with Meryl Streep playing the devil herself Miranda, who is widely acknowledged to have been based on real-life Vogue editor Anna Wintour, for whom Weisberger once worked.

Andy and Emily, her former arch-enemy and co-assistant at Runway, have since joined forces to start a high quality bridal magazine called The Plunge.

Solving the sock issue with Funky Giraffe

Snugly: Benjamin

“Excuse me; did you know your baby’s lost a sock?” This is the constant, well meaning inquiry of strangers and the answer is always a resounding: "Yes". Yes I know it’s fallen off, of course it has. Socks are incapable of remaining on babies' feet for more than five minutes. And I'm too slovenly a mother to spend my life reapplying them.

I remember this problem with my first baby. I tried little sock harness things (got lost once worn) pram shoes (fiddly and annoying to get on) - in the end I think I just made sure his feet were covered with a blanket. But second time around, I resolved to tackle the problem afresh and research what solutions are out there on the market.

CHILDREN'S BOOK REVIEW: Spaghetti with the Yeti (Adam & Charlotte Guillain, illustrated by Lee Wildish)

This book has the kind of wacky off-beat humour reminiscent of Aliens Love Underpants - if you’re familiar with that seminal work.

Like the Underpants books, it rattles along with fast-paced rhyme and is illustrated with bright and detailed scenes.

The central character – a boy called George – decides to go and discover the Yeti, taking with him a backpack, hat, map and tin of spaghetti.

Setting off up a steep mountain path, he bumps into three monsters – none of whom turn out to be the yeti, but instead three creatures named, in turn, Betty, Hetty and Netty. Each one has contrasting advice on what the yeti will like to eat. When he does eventually discover the yeti, George is delighted to find that he in fact only eats spaghetti.

BOOK REVIEW: Instructions For A Heatwave (Maggie O'Farrell)

It’s a catchy title, and one the marketing people must have been rubbing their hands with glee about, given the soaring temperatures that quickly followed the book’s publication.

But I would say the title is exactly what lets this novel down.

Recently retired bank manager Robert Riordan goes out for a newspaper as usual and doesn’t return, prompting his wife to call on her three grown-up children to play out a very domestic drama in which secrets are uncovered and relationships explored.

The heat wave scorching London in 1976, when it is set, keeps a cool distance. Just a few references to aphids and water restrictions establish its presence, with no sense of a wider national event.

Writing gobbledygook - the next generation

Diary of an (im)perfect mum, page 6, and on Page 20, some thoughts on first and second children.