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Book Launch Musings

I thought I would get John Dixwell’s key to Dover Castle framed for the book launch. At the moment, it…

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The Business of Becoming

I keep having to become somebody new, no matter how old I get. Publishing my first book at the age…

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The Smallest Things

If you walk nearly every day in the Holyoke Range, as I do, you get a chance to notice the…

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Pen, Paper and a Single Root

For me, the best kind of writing is done not on a touchscreen or a keyboard but with pen and…

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How Did Gracie Help the War Effort?

There are two dachshunds on my mantelpiece. They are more than twins, because they are two images, each carved from…

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Why the Woods?

I generally have a better day if I can get into the woods by myself for an hour or so.…

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Someone has the Sword!

I was given John Dixwell’s key to Dover Castle. What better metaphor for chasing down and unlocking as many secrets…

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What Survives?

The unbearable news from Ukraine, with footage of shattered buildings, wounded children, or people sheltering in subway tunnels or wherever…

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Building up, Tearing down

All things fall and are built again And those that build them again are gay. From “Lapis Lazuli,” by William…

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Executions in Miniature

Last week, when I opened the kitchen drawer in which I keep my knives, I discovered many minuscule mouse turds,…

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Was It Worth It?

There was a lot of buzz on British Twitter feeds over the last few weeks because January 30th was the…

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More Thoughts about Feet

My father was terrific when it came to foot care. When I was a child, I loved hanging around him…

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And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time?

I was touched, when I was researching my book, to learn that when my great great grandfather Epes Sargent Dixwell…

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What About Street Names?

After you die, is it any consolation to have a street named after you? Can the dead can appreciate the…

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More Thoughts about Names

I have a little more to say about my various names and how my confusing experience of them led me…

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What’s in a Name?

What inspired me to spend decades researching and writing a book about the regicide John Dixwell? The answer is short:…

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The Regicide in Books and in Song

“The most interesting thing about King Charles the First is that he was 5 foot 6 inches tall at the…

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These Old Bones – John Dixwell’s Grave

In 1849, exactly two centuries after Charles the First was beheaded in London, the bones of one of the men…

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Speaking of Bones

Bones were so prominent in my childhood that it’s no wonder I love the story of the Dixwell brothers digging…

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