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When I started this blog, I wanted to use it to not only to record the present but to explore my thoughts about the past, which in some way or another is always at the core of what I write. But three months in, my blog is awash in now and there is precious little then to be found.

I’m not sure I can entirely turn the tide on this one. Blogs are such a great tool for capturing the present that even a confirmed history addict like me doesn’t always think to talk about the past. But I read a wonderful post the other day by jeannineatkins about writing biography (and who better to write about this than Jeannine, who has written many wonderful ones?). She writes:

…as I work my way through source material, I’m waiting for what wakes me up. I may not know why just then, but I’ll jot down what startles me, often something involving the five senses: so it can look mundane. But somewhere down the line I may be glad to know someone picked blueberries on a certain ordinary or not day in history.

I love this! Not least, I suspect, because my own mind works in similar ways. More on that later…