This is a blog about books and writing,with lots of of book-related pages including, of course, a word or two about me.
- You’ll find News and Chat in the And to Begin section.
- Or you might take a peek at
- some attractive Ephemera of the Book Trade,
- a selection of Victorian Writers & Poets,
- some examples of Victorian Ways
- or life in Victorian London,
- plus the Have You Met? section, introducing some curious literary characters.
- and older pieces filed under Jottings.
Why not click any of the above and take a look?
In summary then, this is a blog for writers and readers and anyone who loves books.
First: a mention of the book I’ve been working on for the last 4 years.
(Yes, I know….)
ISBN: 978-1-7384083-0-6
My big new ‘Popular Encyclopaedia of Victorian Women Writers’ was published on Thursday, January 4th, 2024!
A compendious illustrated guide to those industrious but often overlooked women writers of the Victorian era: the famous, the forgotten and the forlorn. More than 1,500 women authors – plus over 400 separately listed pseudonyms, masses of information, quotes, extracts and a number of fascinating essays – packed into 588 fascinating pages.
Not just the familiar names – though of course they’ll all be there. But this will also be the place to discover literally hundreds of minor and middle-ranking authors. You’ll find out about the magazines they were serialized in, the trends, the publishers, the disadvantages and problems they faced in what was assumed to be a man’s world.
You’ll find entries on The Bigamy Novel, Children’s Literature, Domestic Fiction, Feminism and Suffrage, Ghosts, Governess Stories, Literary Style, Living in a Man’s World, Marriage, Morality and Religion, The New Woman, Romance, Sensation Novels, Silly and Silver Fork Novels, Social Conditions and Reform, The Three-Decker novel, Tracts and Tract Societies, Travellers and Explorers, ‘Woman’s Place’, Women and Work, Writing for Money – and more.
Oh, and let me emphasize that this is a popular encyclopaedia, not an academic text. It’s a book to read and enjoy; to dip into and to consult for reference. And it’s very readable. Not only is it written in easy-to-read prose but (almost uniquely) it has four hundred extracts from Victorian women’s writing – paragraphs, short scenes, verses – to give you a real sense of how and what they wrote.
It’s my BIG BOOK to start 2024!
ISBN: 978-1-7384083-0-6
Check it out now – CLICK HERE
Or, of course, you can order it from Amazon or your favourite bookshop now: CLICK HERE!
Find some Victorian writers and illustrators
on my VICTORIAN LINES site – HERE: 
If you’d like to know a little more about me or about any of my own 2 dozen books, check my website – press HERE:
Kindle downloads of all my books can be had direct from Amazon: Have a look!
And do please LIKE the page by clicking the LIKE BUTTON at the foot of this page. Thanks!
What am I writing now?
I write crime, general and historical fiction, and non-fiction too. But my latest is that big ‘Popular Encyclopaedia of Victorian Women Writers’. For more details, CLICK HERE
Or, of course, you can order it from Amazon or your favourite bookshop now: CLICK HERE!
Recently I’ve concentrated on The Croome Victorian trilogy telling of a small town in late Victorian England. First in the series is The Captain’s Ward a ‘coming of age’ story about a young girl sent to live with her charismatic guardian. Then comes After She Drowned, about forbidden love in the Victorian church. The third is Man’s Estate on the question of male – or should it be – female inheritance: who should the father favour?
Kindle downloads of all my books can be had direct from Amazon: Amazon
or you can click here: Russell James page
Whatever else you do, please check back in to BOOKS MATTER from time to time. You never know what you’ll find. And please LIKE the page by clicking the LIKE BUTTON!
Russell James
The Booksmatter Blog 