SPOILER ALERT – This review includes information that may spoil your reading of the original story. To read The Conquest first – click here. In January 1837 the Welsh newspaper the Monmouthshire Merlin published a short story by a writer who is only identified by the initials I.H. Although the Merlin features a number of short stories by writers using initials only one … Read More “‘The Conquest, or a Mail Companion’ Review” »
Author: Norena Shopland
Norena Shopland The mystery genre has always been a good home for the diversity of characters. One of the first twentieth-century stories to feature a queer character in the UK is Arthur Conan Doyle’s (1859-1930) short story The Man with the Watches originally published in the Strand magazine in 1898 but in book form in … Read More “Queering ‘The Murder of My Aunt’ (1934)” »
1903 Source: Rhyl Record and Advertiser, 16 May 1903 For more on Percy Meye listen to Jane Hoy’s podcast 1904 Angus McBean, a Welsh photographer, was born on 8 June. In the spring of 1942, his career was temporarily ruined when he was arrested in Bath for criminal acts of homosexuality. He was sentenced to … Read More “1900s” »
1890 Nina Hamnett Sexually fluid Nina Hamnett was born in Tenby, Pembrokeshire on 14 February. An artist and writer, she was better known as the Queen of Bohemia. 1891 Welsh author Kate Roberts is born on 13 February. Born and raised in Rhosgadfan near Caernarfon, Roberts is considered the most significant writer of fiction in … Read More “1890s” »
1882 A MASQUERADING TAILOR. At Wrexham the other day a tailor named Joseph Williams was charged with masquerading in female attire. On Sunday evening the defendant paid a visit to the Salvation Army meeting, dressed in a black bodice and skirt, red and white plaid shawl, and black straw hat trimmed with black ribbon. His … Read More “1880s” »
A Queer Bawdy Ballad The tale of two young women from this region [Denbighshire] who dressed themselves in men’s clothes, and went courting to a country house to seduce two young women, who were strangers to them. (Link opens to an external site) Two blogs were produced about the above balled, which is dated roughly … Read More “1870s” »
Octavius Morgan (1803–1888) was born at Tredegar Park, Monmouthshire, and is recognised as one of Wales’ most important antiquaries. He sat as MP for Monmouthshire from 1841 to 1874 for the Conservatives. In a work entitled Memories of Monmouthshire generally attributed to Reginald James Blewitt founder of the newspaper the Monmouthshire Merlin and a fellow … Read More “1860s” »
1851 EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCE. On the 28th last, at Llanfynydd, [Carmarthenshire] Sarah, the wife of Evan Jones, shoemaker, gave birth to a child which is a perfect hermaphrodite, and the registrar is consequently puzzled how to register it. The medical faculty have as yet failed to solve the problem submitted to them in this case. Had … Read More “1850s” »
1922 Mary Louisa Gordon (1861-1941), a British physician, prison inspector, and author publishes Penal Discipline advocating reforms to the prison system. In the book she recalls: I came across another young woman who was continually in prison for stealing men’s clothes. She had several long sentences. I asked her what would keep her out of … Read More “1920s” »
1842 ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE – Considerable excitement was caused in Tenby, on the 21st ult, by the appearance of a person in male attire, who had a short time before introduced herself to several families in the town as a female and partook of their hospitality under that character. On her first visit she … Read More “1840s” »