It's true that the title of this blog does not look like anything to do with historical fiction, but the equilibrium between wildlife and humanity was not always so precarious as it is now. Finding the balance which existed at the time you're writing can be a very useful tool to setting a believable background for your writing. So here are a few mammal considerations... Wild mammals were everywhere - they still are, in fact! Whether you're writing about the middle of a city or the middle of nowhere, it should be a given that these animals will influence life. As well as the obvious and frequently maligned rats and mice, other mammals have cohabited our cities with us. Foxes have always had a partially urban existence, and the building of cities on waterways also often lead to otters and (depending on how far inland they were) seals being resident. Mankind knew how to find wild mammals - there is a continuous development in the scientific study of our wild mammals and this...
The pen is mightier than the sword, so it’s said. One man who proves this statement to be true was William Shakespeare. He remains to this day one of the most quoted writers in the world and his insults have become legendary. There are scores of books of them, and countless internet generators for them. But his insults, some of which work better than others in the modern world, are not the only things he used as weapons. As the song says, there are countless things we say because he strung them together and tucked them into our cultural knowledge. Phrases like “wild goose chase” and “love is blind” are so ingrained in our minds we use them without stopping to think where they came from and only a little bit more about who came up with them. Along with this power, comes the supreme act of propaganda. Here, we see the truth in that statement, for we see the pen is truly mightier than the sword. Shakespeare rewrote – or, is some cases, just wrote – history. There are lines from his plays ...