I've been out of the
loop for almost three months. I've ignored my novel. I've been in the slums of
Southwark, and by the cholera infested Broad Street pump. I've been in
Kensington Palace, and to the Great Exhibition. I briefly visited the textile
factories of Nottingham, and the coal mines of South Wales. I've marched with
the Temperance Society, and marveled at Champagne Charlie's antics on the stage
at Wilton's Music Hall. In short, I've been in Victorian Britain.
I've just finished an
online course on Victorian history. I love research, and the course was
excellent, but oh how much I love going back to my story. I was worried that
our mutual absence would mean that my story and I would have grown apart, but
that's not the case at all. In fact, the course has both inspired and informed
my story and it is growing into a far better, leap-off –the-page thing.
And now I know it's true. Absence really does make the heart grow
fonder!
This is the course: University of Oxford, Investigating Victorians
