- DURATION 1 hr
Event Description
Join Melanie King as she shares the ups and downs of writing her latest non-fiction book about the culture of mineral spas. Research involved such things as scrambling up the steep slopes of the Malvern Hills looking for a defunct holy well, or pacing around Buxton in search of a chalybeate spring with only the directions of an eighteenth-century traveller as a guide. She found out that Google Maps is, so far, uninterested in such sites. Her work also involved more sedentary tasks, such as sitting in hushed, dusty archives and coming across satires with memorable characters named Lady Bunbutter and Sir Simon Blunderhead. But research is something that can consume author and reader both. The hardest part of producing works of historical non-fiction will always be organising the information and telling the story in an engaging way that lets the voices of the past speak to us in the present.
Melanie's King 'The Secret History of English Spas' is available at Amazon.uk, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, The Bodleian Shop, Bookshop.org, Foyles, Indigo
- Duration: 1 hr
- Online Zoom event: Join from your computer, phone or tablet (no replay available)
Meet the Host, Melanie
Melanie King has published eight books of historical non-fiction, covering subjects from prophecy and espionage to the history of chocolate. Her latest book, The Secret History of English Spas, was released September 2021.
Melanie graduated from Sussex University and has worked in Bangkok as a staff writer for the Nation, in Brussels with eurocrats, in the publications department at Chatham House, and in London with refugees and victims of torture. She earns a living as a writer and speaker, exploring the oddities of little-known byways of history.
Preparing for the Event
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We also recommend that pets are either calmly sitting on your lap or in another room, and any refreshments you may require are within your reach!
More Information
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