Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

They called her the "Empress of the Blues." An earthy, hot-tempered, hard-drinking woman who loved wild parties, cheap hooch, and down home southern cooking. Bessie Smith didn't care a fig about what people thought about her. She worked hard and played just as hard. Bessie was black and proud; she never apologized for her color or her background. She was also fearless, at a tent performance in North Carolina in 1927, Bessie discovered that the KKK were preparing to disrupt one of her performances.  She confronted the men, cursing at them to leave. Shocked, they slunk away without doing any damage. Born on April 15, 1894 in Chattanooga, TN, Bessie Smith was the daughter of a laborer and part-time Baptist preacher who died before she was a baby. Before she was nine years old, Bessie had lost her mother, and a brother as well, leaving her oldest sister Viola to raise five kids on her own. To help out, Bessie and her brother Andrew began singing and dancing on the stre...

While I was researching my chapter on Cleopatra for Scandalous Women , the question of whether or not she was black came up. For centuries Cleopatra was seen as an exotic femme fatale but with the rise of interest in African-American history and the black power movement over the years, there has been a rush to claim Cleopatra as a sister. I used to argue about this with my brother constantly when I was in high school and studying ancient history. He insisted that Cleopatra had to be black because she was the Pharoah of Egypt and Egypt was in Africa. I, of course, explained to him all about Alexander the Great and how after his death, his empire was divided amongst his generals, and Ptolemy ended up with Egypt. We went around like this for days before I just gave up arguing with him. Now of course, with the announcement that Angelina Jolie might be playing the role in a film adapted from Stacey Schiff's biography, the question comes up again (the fact that Angelina Jolie is much mo...

Madame Tussaud: A Novel About the French Revolution Author: Michelle Moran Publisher: Crown Publishing Publication Date:  February 15th, 2011 Dear Michelle, I just finished reading your new novel MADAME TUSSAUD yesterday and I sat in silence for a few moments afterwards to catch my breath.  What you have accomplished with this novel is astounding, you have managed to make the ideas behind the French Revolution not only comprehensible, but you have also made it human by weaving in the story of the remarkable Madame Tussaud. I first encountered Madame Tussaud's on my first trip to London when I was 16. It was a teen tour and we ran around every day for a month, visiting various attractions around London and outside the city. I'm ashamed to say that I didn't really pay too much attention to who Madame Tussaud was. I was more impressed by the Chamber of Horrors, and the Planetarium next door. I'm not even sure that I even knew that Madame Tussaud had been a real pe...

I love history and I love to travel, being able to combine the two is the ultimate for me.  Last year, I was lucky enough to go on the first ever Anne Boleyn Experience, a trip that was put together by the amazing Claire at The Anne Boleyn Files .  This year, she has two trips planned, the Executed Queens tour in May, and the Anne Boleyn Experience in July. Both tours are unfortunately sold out, but it's never too early to plan for 2012! Thanks to the blog Historical Tapestry  for the heads up about these two tours. Historical fiction author Sharon Kay Penman will be leading an Eleanor of Aquitaine tour in June. Now this is the tour that I really wish I could go on. I adore Eleanor of Aquitaine, she's one of my favorite Scandalous Women, and I really wish I could find enough change in my sofa to go.  However, Sharon will be blogging throughout the tour so that we can all live vicariously through the experience. You can read about the tour here . Historian Al...

"I would marry him I loved,  and give up my throne and my country," Caroline Matilda, Queen of Denmark (1751-1775) The life of a royal princess is often an unhappy one, destined to be a pawn in the shifting alliances among nations, forced to leave her home, and family to live in a foreign country where she more often than not didn't know the language, isolated from anything familiar, it was a wonder more of them didn't go bonkers from the strain and tension they were under. For every Eleanor of Aquitaine, strong-willed and more capable than most men, or Catherine the Great in history, there were princesses like Catherine of Braganza and Maria Theresa of France who found their place at court usurped by a revolving door of glittering mistresses. And then there was Caroline Mathilde, Queen of Denmark, married off to her first cousin Christian VII at the tender age of 15. Born postumously to Augusta, Princess of Wales after the unexpected death of her husband, Frederi...

Daphne: The Secret Life of Daphne du Maurier (2007) Produced by the BBC Directed by Cleare Beaven Executive Producer: Kim Thomas Written by Amy Jenkins based on Margaret Forster's 1993 biography Starring: Daphne du Maurier:   Geraldine Sommerville Ellen Doubleday:        Elizabeth McGovern Gertrude Lawrence:   Janet McTeer Nelson Doubleday:    Christopher Malcolm Tommy Browning:      Andrew Harvill Synopsis:  Set during the years between the "Rebecca" trial and the writing of Du Maurier's short story "The Birds", including her relationship with her husband Frederick 'Boy' Browning, and her largely unrequited infatuation with American publishing tycoon's wife Ellen Doubleday and her love affair with the actress Gertrude Lawrence. My thoughts:  My knowledge about Daphne du Maurier was very limited. I knew of her as a novelist, author of Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, Frenchman's...

Politics is a dirty game, and if you're a woman it’s even twice as rough. Women in politics tend to be held to higher standards then men; they have to be tougher without seeming to lose their femininity. They are judged not only on the issues, but how they look. While their opponents may keep on the kid gloves against them, their supporters can come out swinging. Helen Gahagan Douglas (1900-1980) found that out the hard way when she ran for the United States Senate in California against future Vice-President & President of the United States, Richard Milhous Nixon. The year was 1950, World War II had been over for five years, and Harry Truman was President, having been elected in his own right in 1948. It was the beginning of the post-war baby boom, but there was a storm cloud that was hanging over the country, and that was the threat of communism. The Soviets who had been allies during the War were now being looked at as the enemy. Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin has just s...

THE IRISH PRINCESS author: Karen Harper Publisher: NAL, February 1, 2011 From the back cover: Born into a first family of Ireland, with royal ties on both sides, Elizabeth Fitzgerald-known as Gera-finds her world overturned when Henry VIII imprisons her father, the Earl of Kildare, and brutally destroys her family. Torn from the home she loves, her remaining family scattered, Gera dares not deny the refuge offered her in England's glittering royal court. There she must navigate ever-shifting alliances even as she nurtures her secret desire for revenge. From County Kildare's lush green fields to London's rough-and-tumble streets and the royal court's luxurious pageantry, The Irish Princess follows the journey of a daring woman whose will cannot be tamed, and who won't be satisfied until she restores her family to its rightful place in Ireland. My thoughts:  I first came across the name Elizabeth Fitzgerald while researching Grace O'Malley for SCANDALOUS W...

CAESARS' WIVES by Annelise Freisenbruch Publisher:  Simon & Schuster Synopsis: In scandals and power struggles obscured by time and legend, the wives, mistresses, mothers, sisters, and daughters of the Caesars have been popularly characterized as heartless murderers, shameless adulteresses, and conniving politicians in the high dramas of the Roman court. Yet little has been known about who they really were and their true roles in the history-making schemes of imperial Rome’s ruling Caesars—indeed, how they figured in the rise, decline, and fall of the empire. Now, in Caesars’ Wives: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Roman Empire, Annelise Freisenbruch pulls back the veil on these fascinating women in Rome’s power circles, giving them the chance to speak for themselves for the first time. With impeccable scholarship and arresting storytelling, Freisenbruch brings their personalities vividly to life, from notorious Livia and scandalous Julia to Christian Helena. Starting at the...