#flora churchill

[curiousb]

The Churchill Family Album: Volume XI

Fresh from uni, Flora’s fiancé Gabriel is moving in with the Churchills, and getting to know his parents-in-law.

~ Libra 6 / 4 / 6 / 7 / 5

~ Absent-minded / Eccentric / Good Sense of Humour / Easily Impressed / Ambitious

~ OTH: Games

~ Favourite Colour(s): Yellow / Blue / Turquoise

~ Aspiration: Pleasure / Popularity

~ Turn-ons / -off: +Charismatic / +Indoorsy / -Serious

~ Major: Drama (2.7)

~ LTW: Have 20 Successful Parties

Veteran hedonists Frank and Mary take the young couple’s youthful exhibitionism in their stride.

And of course, where you have woohoo, you have nooboos...

The calm before the storm.

Pregnancy does not slow them down one bit.

It’s a girl! Meet Janet, who has her grandma Harriet’s warm brown eyes and her mum’s red hair, and an outfit that coordinates perfectly with her mother’s.

Granddad Frank is over the moon, even though new father Gabriel seems to be wondering what all the fuss is about.

While Mary also utterly dotes on her new granddaughter.

[rabbitcruiser]

Grimes Point Archaeological Area, Fallon NV (No. 5)

Keep an eye out for all kinds of shapes, including swirls, desert bighorn sheep, and distinctive peck marks forming smooth divots—a signature petroglyph at Grimes Point. Keen-eyed visitors will note that, running east and west along the ridge behind the site, lays evidence of an aboriginal drift fence for driving deer or antelope. After all, the act of creating a petroglyph was often a ritual performed by a group leader before each hunt. These petroglyphs can be seen on boulders within a short walking distance of the rest area, but if you’re up for more of an active interpretation, jump in the car and head just one mile up the road.

This Nevada Bureau of Land Management (BLM) site has recently employed new restrooms, five sheltered picnic tables, an informational kiosk, benches, and a paved parking lot and road. In addition to the interpretive trail, a guided education program is provided for those interested in learning more about Great Basin history.

Source

[fatehbaz]

In the 19th century, British colonists faced several challenges in India, [...] [including] malaria. [...] The imperialists needed an answer to the problem and they found it in quinine. [...] [T]he British promptly embraced quinine, consuming tonnes of it every year by the mid-1800s. [...] Quinine was so bitter that soldiers and officials began mixing the powder with soda and sugar, unwittingly giving birth to “tonic water”. [...] [I]t prompted Winston Churchill to once proclaim, “The gin and tonic has saved more Englishmen’s lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire.” [...] If by some good fortune malaria did not claim them, plague, cholera, dysentery, enteric fever, hepatitis or the unforgiving sun could. Preserving and protecting the body was [...] crucial to the success of the colonial project. As historian EM Collingham aptly summarised in her study, “The British experience of India was intensely physical.”

One way the colonists tried to deal with this challenge was through food and drinks. “The association between food and the maintenance of health was a concern of Anglo-Indian doctors, dieticians and the British authorities throughout the duration of colonial rule [...],” writes Sam Goodman in Unpalatable Truths: Food and Drink as Medicine in Colonial British India. [...]

---

The Medical Gazette, for instance, recommended treating dysentery with a “low diet” comprising thin chicken soup [...]. Botanist-physician George Watt too extolled the virtues of sago. In A Dictionary of the Economic Products of India (1893), he wrote that sago is “easily digestible and wholly destitute of irritating properties” and in demand [...]. For fever, weakness and sundry ailments, beef tea [...] was considered an ideal remedy. And for cholera, The Seamen’s New Medical Guide (1842) prescribed brandy during the worst of the sickness and half a tumbler of mulled wine with toasted bread and castor oil [...]. Ship masters and pantrymen would stock their vessels with foods with known medicinal benefits such as sago, arrowroot, lime juice, desiccated milk and condensed milk (the iconic Anglo Swiss Condensed Milk tins, later known as Milkmaid, enjoyed a permanent spot on British ships).

---

Businessmen too recognised the precarity of life abroad and realised that therein lay a perfect commercial opportunity. By the 19th century, numerous companies had cropped up across Europe, including in England, that would sell food in hermetically sealed tin containers.

One of these was Messrs Brand & Co. Recommended highly in Culinary Jottings for Madras by Colonel Robert Kenney-Herbert, Messrs Brand & Co had several offerings [...]: essence of beef, concentrated beef tea, beef tea jelly, meat lozenges, [...] potted meat, York and game pie, and A1 sauce [...]. Another company, John Moir & Sons, focused mostly on canned soups [...], selling oxtail, turtle, giblet and hare.

---

By the late 19th century such was the popularity of canned foods that rare would be the pantry in a colonial home that didn’t store them along with medical provisions like opium, quinine, chlorodyne and Fowler’s solution (an arsenic compound). [...] As Flora Steele and Grace Gardiner wrote in The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook, “A good mistress will remember the breadwinner requires blood-forming nourishment, and the children whose constitutions are being built up day by day, sickly or healthy, according to the food given them; and bear in mind the fact that in India, especially, half the comfort of life depends on clean, wholesome, digestible food.”

To assist the British woman in this ostensible duty, there were a number of cookbooks and housekeeping manuals [...]. The Englishwoman in India, for instance, published in 1864 under the pseudonym A Lady Resident, had a whole section with recipes for “infants and invalids”. These included carrot pap cooked into a congee with arrowroot [...] and toast water (well-toasted bread soaked in water). Steele and Gardiner too had a few recipe recommendations [...], including champagne jelly (“most useful in excessive vomiting”) and the dangerous-sounding Cannibal Broth (beef essence), which they said should be consumed with cream [...] to treat extreme debility and typhoid. [...]

---

One dish born of this encounter was the pish pash. The pish pash is considered an invention of the colonial cook, who adapted the kedgeree – the colonial cousin of khichdi – into a light nursery food. The famous Hobson-Jobson defined it as “a slop of rice soup with small pieces of meat” [...]. None other than Warren Hastings, the first governor-general of Bengal, gave confirmation of its efficacy when in 1784 he wrote to his wife from the sick bed [...]. There are enough records to show that the imperialists counted marh (starch water from cooked rice) and bael (wood apple) sherbet among their go-to remedies and benefited from the medicinal qualities of chiretta water and ajwain-infused water.

---

All text above by: Priyadarshini Chatterjee. “How food came to the rescue of the British in India.” Scroll.in (Magazine format). 26 April 2023. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[leanstooneside]

Aided whiplash

1. ILLNESS DON HAS

2. FOR JON BARNBROOK'S

3. LEWIS CARROLL CHARLES

4. AND HENRI CHOPIN

5. YOU ANDREW BELSEY

6. IS ROBERT MORGAN

7. NAMED DON ROYER

8. 19992000 JOAN G

9. MISS STACEY HAS

10. ABOUT FLORA STACEY

11. AT BOB ROEHRIG'S

12. OF HENRI CHOPIN'S

13. NAMED GUILLERMO MENDANA

14. CALLIGRAPHER PETER SCHOEFFER

15. YA. CHARLES STRUBLE

16. GANDHI WINSTON CHURCHILL

17. BY CHARLES STRUBLE

[gracie-bird]

The prince and his sister's first apprenticeships under the guidance of their governess Kathleen Wanstall in 1928.

‘My sister and I were brought up by an English nanny. It's very possessive an English nanny. i was afraid of her (...), We received a visit from our parents from 5 o'clock. For one hour. The rest of the day we were in the nursery, without much contact contact with the them"- Prince Rainier in an interview (1975).

ABOUT NANNY WANSTALL:

Said to be a distant cousin of Winston Churchill, Kathleen Wanstall trained as a nanny in London during the 1900s. Miss Wanstall was born in Rugby, England, on January 30, 1886, the daughter of Richard Cotterill Wanstall and Flora Mary Grant. She was educated at St Margaret's School, Bushey, and trained as a nanny at the Norland Institute in London, between 1904-6. She worked for the Vaux family in Carshalton, 1906, and the Guest family in Poole, 1908-10. She was then employed by the Prince and Princess Wilhelm of Stolberg-Wernigerode of Schloss Schonberg in Hessen, Germany,1911-19, and travelled with them to the German Embassy in Rome and then Vienna during the First World War.

After the war, Miss Wanstall worked for the Princely family of Monaco, where she was mainly responsible for the care of Princess Antoinette, the daughter of Princess Charlotte and Prince Pierre de Polignac, who was born in 1920. In 1937, she was awarded the Médaille d'Honneur de Deuxième Classe and, in 1950, she became a Chevalier de l'Ordre de Saint-Charles. She died on May 9, 1967 and is buried in the Cimetiére de Monaco.

Source:University of Cambridge's archives.

[carmenvicinanza]

Flora Monti

Portavo messaggi alle brigate, nascondendoli nelle scarpe o fra le trecce dei capelli. Se avevo paura? Certo, i boschi pullulavano di tedeschi, ma sentivo di doverlo fare.

Flora Monti è stata la più giovane staffetta partigiana della Resistenza Italiana. Aveva solo dodici anni e si era fermata alla seconda elementare, quando ha scelto di schierarsi contro il nazifascismo, consegnando segretamente messaggi alle varie cellule sparse nella zona dell’Appennino Tosco Emiliano.

Nata a Monterenzio, Bologna, il 15 novembre 1931, in una famiglia antifascista, figlia di Olindo e Maria, entrambi contadini, è cresciuta coi racconti del nonno Achille, picchiato e torturato perché si rifiutava di prendere la tessera fascista.

Pochi giorni dopo l’Armistizio suo padre si era ritrovato nell’aia una ventina di ragazzi fuggiti dal distretto militare di Bologna che indossavano ancora la divisa. Dopo averli accolti e rivestiti, si sono dispersi nella montagna e hanno formato la 66ma Brigata Garibaldi Jacchia, la prima della zona.

La famiglia aveva anche ospitato e salvato due soldati inglesi e un americano, tanto da ricevere, a guerra finita, i ringraziamenti epistolari di Winston Churchill in persona.

Aveva dodici anni quando ha deciso di contribuire alla lotta. Camminava per ore nei boschi, nascondendo i bigliettini nelle trecce e nelle scarpe, accostando l’orecchio al suolo, per sentire se stavano arrivando camionette. Più volte è riuscita a scampare alle perquisizioni.

Nel 1944, con l’intervento degli alleati americani, la sua famiglia venne fatta sfollare con un viaggio terribile su treni merci e stipati come sardine, in quello che era il campo profughi più grande d’Italia, Cinecittà, dove sono rimasti per sette mesi.

Quando rientrarono la loro casa era distrutta, ma tutte e tutti erano di nuovo insieme, compresi i fratelli arruolati.

Dopo il matrimonio si è trasferita a Bologna dove ha lavorato nella bottega del marito, sfrecciando a bordo di una lambretta per fare le consegne.

Sempre in prima linea nella lotta dei diritti di donne e lavoratori, si è trovata spesso a essere picchiata durante le manifestazioni.

Nonostante la sua bella età, continua a partecipare alla vita dell’Anpi, non si perde un comizio e porta la sua testimonianza nelle scuole e in altre istituzioni per raccontare alle nuove generazioni l’importanza della resistenza.

Fiera delle medaglie ricevute, è una delle ultime testimoni di quella lotta per la libertà in nome della quale, con coraggio, ha scelto di fare la sua parte.

Sulla sua vicenda sono stati tratti spettacoli, mostre e il documentario Flora, della regista Martina De Polo.

[beautymaleficent]

[stephensmithuk]

The Noble Bachelor

Watson's bullet remains in his shoulder and an attempt at removal with the surgical tech of the day was probably not a good idea.

A tide-waiter is a customs inspector at a port.

Yes, there were books dedicated to listing the aristocracy. Still are.

The "charming invaders" would become known as "dollar princesses" - under the nationality laws of the time, a wife took her husband's nationality and lost her own. By the end of the 19th century, a quarter of the Lords would have some American connection.

The most notable "dollar princess" for history would be Jennie Jerome, the mother of Winston Churchill. She was also one of the *many* mistresses of the then Prince of Wales, later Edward VII.

You could get across the Atlantic by steamship in under a week by this time, but only the richest or government officials would do this regularly.

"The season" was the social calendar of London - based on the residence of the royals in London and the Lords attending Parliament. It started at Easter and went up to the start of the grouse shooting season in August. This included the whole debutante business.

Flora is a former ballet dancer. Those and actresses have frequently ended up as mistresses to the upper classes, who could not marry someone that below their ranks. Their wives frequently just had to put up with it - or had their own affairs.

8 shilings or 40p in modern money would be 40 quid in today's prices. Cheap hotel today!

Hatty has probably not committed bigamy - Frank was probably declared legally dead and the marriage would be deemed to have ended. The five year rule (under California law) does not apply in cases like shipwrecks, where no body is likely to be found.

The marriage to Lord St. Simon can be annuled, as no consumation has taken place - and she can legally remarry in a church.

[evita-shelby]

Diane Elizabeth

Another dad! Tommy ficlet. This time its Diane.

(Could be read as tommy x reader or tommy x eva since Mrs. Shelby remains unnamed)

Six years old (Florence) and The Shelby Boys (Charlie and Gabriel)

1935

Diane is ten when he catches her kissing a girl in the linen closet.

Not just any girl, no, his daughter had to get a crush on Bianca Sabini.

She may be the most well-behaved child in the house, but even she had her faults.

Her fickleness would be a problem.

At nine she decided she liked boys and girls.

At nine and a half she had kissed at least three boys and two girls. This she had bragged to him at dinner and making him choke on his whiskey.

At her tenth birthday she decided Bianca Sabini, daughter of Darby Sabini, would be the third girl she kissed.

1939

Dia is fourteen when she gets her heart broken by a boy.

None other than Nicholas Mosley in a romance that lasted all of three weeks.

“I hate him, daddy.” She cried as he held her.

He tells her it will be alright and bribes her with a pony.

Deep down Tommy knows it won’t be long until she’s stringing along another boy or girl.

By the end of the week, Tommy feels relieved to find her giggling with a nice Jewish girl.

He thinks he’s the only dad fine with his eldest child scoring for both teams.

Frida Solomons, nearly fifteen, the granddaughter of a Rabbi and only daughter of Alfie Solomons.

Better Alfie’s daughter than Mosley’s son.

1940

On her fifteenth birthday, she chooses Bobby Nelson-Kennedy, Jack Nelson’s seventh child to be her dance partner for her first dance.

“Could unite our families with them two.” Jack Nelson says as they pretend they aren’t bothered by this sudden romance between their children.

Lawrence Gray had set them up six months ago. Friendship had turned to a secret romance where Bobby believed his pretty English girlfriend hadn’t been disloyal to him with sixteen-year-old Johnny Dogs Junior.

“In your fucking dreams, Nelson.” Tommy said.

He’d rather have Johnny Junior marrying his little witch than letting her marry one of Nelson’s brats.

1945

The war ends and Diane is twenty.

She is an actress, famous for being the voice Churchill uses to keep people’s spirits up.

He is not surprised to find her with Charlie Chaplin’s son getting handsy with his little witch.

“Diane, I love you, Diane, I want to marry you.” Charles Spencer Chaplin III says at the top of his lungs and his daughter just laughs.

If Tommy had a penny for every time a boy asked for his daughter’s hand, he could retire for good.

“You need my daddy’s blessing, Charlie, love.” She says knowing her father will say no for her.

1951

Diane is twenty-five when she finally marries.

Diane runs off with a handsome pilot six months after her birthday.

She met him at aviary school and on her yellow biplane they leave for Gretna Green to marry.

“You’d hate him, daddy.” Flora says when he asks who this mystery boy his daughter has eloped with is.

“Who is he?” he asks again to the keeper of Diane’s secrets.

“Joseph Franz, son of Duchess Tatiana Petrovna and her Austrian husband.” His wife answered before running away like a teenager.

He chases after her, but never catches her. He’s sixty-one years old, grandfather to Charlie’s three children and Gabriel’s little boy, Luca.

Diane had called, “Daddy, Princess Tatiana says that we can only marry if I have your blessing,”

“Diane, I can’t give you my blessing if you aren’t here.” He tells her.

“You’d be mad, daddy, you see,” she paused. “I’m pregnant.”

On his sixty-second birthday, Thomas Michael Franz-Shelby is born.

[nellygwyn]

BOOK RECS

Okay, so lots of people wanted this and so, I am compiling a list of my favourite books (both fiction and non-fiction), books that I recommend you read as soon as humanly possible. In the meantime, I’ll be pinning this post to the top of my blog (once I work out how to do that lmao) so it will be accessible for old and new followers. I’m going to order this list thematically, I think, just to keep everything tidy and orderly. Of course, a lot of this list will consist of historical fiction and historical non-fiction because that’s what I read primarily and thus, that’s where my bias is, but I promise to try and spice it up just a little bit. 

Favourite fiction books of all time:

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock // Imogen Hermes Gowar

Sense and Sensibility // Jane Austen

Slammerkin // Emma Donoghue 

Remarkable Creatures // Tracy Chevalier

Life Mask // Emma Donoghue

His Dark Materials // Philip Pullman (this includes the follow-up series The Book of Dust)

Emma // Jane Austen

The Miniaturist // Jessie Burton

Girl, Woman, Other // Bernadine Evaristo 

Jane Eyre // Charlotte Brontë

Persuasion // Jane Austen

Girl with a Pearl Earring // Tracy Chevalier

The Silent Companions // Laura Purcell

Tess of the d’Urbervilles // Thomas Hardy

Northanger Abbey // Jane Austen

The Chronicles of Narnia // C.S. Lewis

Pride and Prejudice // Jane Austen

Goodnight, Mr Tom // Michelle Magorian

The French Lieutenant’s Woman // John Fowles 

The Butcher’s Hook // Janet Ellis 

Mansfield Park // Jane Austen

The All Souls Trilogy // Deborah Harkness

The Railway Children // Edith Nesbit

Favourite non-fiction books of all time

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman // Robert Massie

Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King // Antonia Fraser

Madame de Pompadour // Nancy Mitford

The First Iron Lady: A Life of Caroline of Ansbach // Matthew Dennison 

Black and British: A Forgotten History // David Olusoga

Courtiers: The Secret History of the Georgian Court // Lucy Worsley 

Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Katherine Howard, the Fifth Wife of Henry VIII // Gareth Russell

King Charles II // Antonia Fraser

Casanova’s Women // Judith Summers

Marie Antoinette: The Journey // Antonia Fraser

Mrs. Jordan’s Profession: The Story of a Great Actress and a Future King // Claire Tomalin

Jane Austen at Home // Lucy Worsley

Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames // Lara Maiklem

The Last Royal Rebel: The Life and Death of James, Duke of Monmouth // Anna Keay

The Marlboroughs: John and Sarah Churchill // Christopher Hibbert

Nell Gwynn: A Biography // Charles Beauclerk

Jurassic Mary: Mary Anning and the Primeval Monsters // Patricia Pierce

Georgian London: Into the Streets // Lucy Inglis

The Prince Who Would Be King: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart // Sarah Fraser

Wedlock: How Georgian Britain’s Worst Husband Met His Match // Wendy Moore

Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from the Stone Age to the Silver Screen // Greg Jenner

Victorians Undone: Tales of the Flesh in the Age of Decorum // Kathryn Hughes

Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey // Nicola Tallis

Favourite books about the history of sex and/or sex work

The Origins of Sex: A History of First Sexual Revolution // Faramerz Dabhoiwala 

Erotic Exchanges: The World of Elite Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century Paris // Nina Kushner

Peg Plunkett: Memoirs of a Whore // Julie Peakman

Courtesans // Katie Hickman

The Other Victorians: A Study of Sexuality and Pornography in mid-Nineteenth Century England

Madams, Bawds, and Brothel Keepers // Fergus Linnane

The Secret History of Georgian London: How the Wages of Sin Shaped the Capital // Dan Cruickshank 

A Curious History of Sex // Kate Lister

Sex and Punishment: 4000 Years of Judging Desire // Eric Berkowitz

Queen of the Courtesans: Fanny Murray // Barbara White

Rent Boys: A History from Ancient Times to Present // Michael Hone

Celeste // Roland Perry

Sex and the Gender Revolution // Randolph Trumbach

The Pleasure’s All Mine: A History of Perverse Sex // Julie Peakman

LGBT+ fiction I love*

The Confessions of the Fox // Jordy Rosenberg 

As Meat Loves Salt // Maria Mccann

Bone China // Laura Purcell

Brideshead Revisited // Evelyn Waugh

The Confessions of Frannie Langton // Sara Collins

The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle // Neil Blackmore

Orlando // Virginia Woolf

Tipping the Velvet // Sarah Waters

She Rises // Kate Worsley

The Mercies // Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Oranges are Not the Only Fruit // Jeanette Winterson

Maurice // E.M Forster

Frankisstein: A Love Story // Jeanette Winterson

If I Was Your Girl // Meredith Russo 

The Well of Loneliness // Radclyffe Hall 

* fyi, Life Mask and Girl, Woman, Other are also LGBT+ fiction

Classics I haven’t already mentioned (including children’s classics)

Far From the Madding Crowd // Thomas Hardy 

I Capture the Castle // Dodie Smith 

Vanity Fair // William Makepeace Thackeray 

Wuthering Heights // Emily Brontë

The Blazing World // Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle

Murder on the Orient Express // Agatha Christie 

Great Expectations // Charles Dickens

North and South // Elizabeth Gaskell

Evelina // Frances Burney

Death on the Nile // Agatha Christie

The Monk // Matthew Lewis

Frankenstein // Mary Shelley

Vilette // Charlotte Brontë

The Mayor of Casterbridge // Thomas Hardy

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall // Anne Brontë

Vile Bodies // Evelyn Waugh

Beloved // Toni Morrison 

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd // Agatha Christie

The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling // Henry Fielding

A Room With a View // E.M. Forster

Silas Marner // George Eliot 

Jude the Obscure // Thomas Hardy

My Man Jeeves // P.G. Wodehouse

Lady Audley’s Secret // Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Middlemarch // George Eliot

Little Women // Louisa May Alcott

Children of the New Forest // Frederick Marryat

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings // Maya Angelou 

Rebecca // Daphne du Maurier

Alice in Wonderland // Lewis Carroll

The Wind in the Willows // Kenneth Grahame

Anna Karenina // Leo Tolstoy

Howard’s End // E.M. Forster

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 // Sue Townsend

Even more fiction recommendations

The Darling Strumpet // Gillian Bagwell

The Wolf Hall trilogy // Hilary Mantel

The Illumination of Ursula Flight // Anne-Marie Crowhurst

Queenie // Candace Carty-Williams

Forever Amber // Kathleen Winsor

The Corset // Laura Purcell

Love in Colour // Bolu Babalola

Artemisia // Alexandra Lapierre

Blackberry and Wild Rose // Sonia Velton

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories // Angela Carter

The Languedoc trilogy // Kate Mosse

Longbourn // Jo Baker

A Skinful of Shadows // Frances Hardinge

The Black Moth // Georgette Heyer

The Far Pavilions // M.M Kaye

The Essex Serpent // Sarah Perry

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo // Taylor Jenkins Reid

Cavalier Queen // Fiona Mountain 

The Winter Palace // Eva Stachniak

Friday’s Child // Georgette Heyer

Falling Angels // Tracy Chevalier

Little // Edward Carey

Chocolat // Joanne Harris 

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street // Natasha Pulley 

My Sister, the Serial Killer // Oyinkan Braithwaite

The Convenient Marriage // Georgette Heyer

Katie Mulholland // Catherine Cookson

Restoration // Rose Tremain

Meat Market // Juno Dawson

Lady on the Coin // Margaret Campbell Bowes

In the Company of the Courtesan // Sarah Dunant

The Crimson Petal and the White // Michel Faber

A Place of Greater Safety // Hilary Mantel 

The Little Shop of Found Things // Paula Brackston

The Improbability of Love // Hannah Rothschild

The Murder Most Unladylike series // Robin Stevens

Dark Angels // Karleen Koen

The Words in My Hand // Guinevere Glasfurd

Time’s Convert // Deborah Harkness

The Collector // John Fowles

Vivaldi’s Virgins // Barbara Quick

The Foundling // Stacey Halls

The Phantom Tree // Nicola Cornick

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle // Stuart Turton

Golden Hill // Francis Spufford

Assorted non-fiction not yet mentioned

The Dinosaur Hunters: A True Story of Scientific Rivalry and the Discovery of the Prehistoric World // Deborah Cadbury

The Beauty and the Terror: An Alternative History to the Italian Renaissance // Catherine Fletcher

All the King's Women: Love, Sex, and Politics in the life of Charles II // Derek Jackson

Mozart’s Women // Jane Glover

Scandalous Liaisons: Charles II and His Court // R.E. Pritchard

Matilda: Queen, Empress, Warrior // Catherine Hanley 

Black Tudors // Miranda Kaufman 

To Catch a King: Charles II's Great Escape // Charles Spencer

1666: Plague, War and Hellfire // Rebecca Rideal

Henrietta Maria: Charles I's Indomitable Queen // Alison Plowden

Catherine of Braganza: Charles II's Restoration Queen // Sarah-Beth Watkins

Four Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses // Helen Rappaport

Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox, 1740-1832 // Stella Tillyard 

The Fortunes of Francis Barber: The True Story of the Jamaican Slave who Became Samuel Johnson’s Heir // Michael Bundock

Black London: Life Before Emancipation // Gretchen Gerzina

In These Times: Living in Britain Through Napoleon’s Wars, 1793-1815

The King’s Mistress: Scandal, Intrigue and the True Story of the Woman who Stole the Heart of George I // Claudia Gold

Perdita: The Life of Mary Robinson // Paula Byrne

The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England // Amanda Vickery

Terms and Conditions: Life in Girls’ Boarding School, 1939-1979 // Ysenda Maxtone Graham 

Fanny Burney: A Biography // Claire Harman

Aphra Behn: A Secret Life // Janet Todd

The Imperial Harem: Women and the Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire // Leslie Peirce

The Fall of the House of Byron // Emily Brand

The Favourite: Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough // Ophelia Field

Night-Walking: A Nocturnal History of London // Matthew Beaumont, Will Self

Jane Austen: A Life // Claire Tomalin

Beloved Emma: The Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton // Flora Fraser

Sentimental Murder: Love and Madness in the 18th Century // John Brewer

Henrietta Howard: King’s Mistress, Queen’s Servant // Tracy Borman

City of Beasts: How Animals Shaped Georgian London // Tom Almeroth-Williams

Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion // Anne Somerset 

Charlotte Brontë: A Life // Claire Harman 

Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe // Anthony Summers

Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day // Peter Ackroyd 

Elizabeth I and Her Circle // Susan Doran

African Europeans: An Untold History // Olivette Otele 

Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron, and Other Tangled Lives // Daisy Hay

How to Create the Perfect Wife // Wendy Moore

The Sphinx: The Life of Gladys Deacon, Duchess of Marlborough // Hugo Vickers

The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn // Eric Ives

Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy // Barbara Ehrenreich

A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie // Kathryn Harkup 

Mistresses: Sex and Scandal at the Court of Charles II // Linda Porter

Female Husbands: A Trans History // Jen Manion

Ladies in Waiting: From the Tudors to the Present Day // Anne Somerset

Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country // Edward Parnell 

A Cheesemonger’s History of the British Isles // Ned Palmer

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine // Lindsey Fitzharris

Medieval Woman: Village Life in the Middle Ages // Ann Baer

The Husband Hunters: Social Climbing in London and New York // Anne de Courcy

The Voices of Nîmes: Women, Sex, and Marriage in Reformation Languedoc // Suzannah Lipscomb

The Daughters of the Winter Queen // Nancy Goldstone

Mad and Bad: Real Heroines of the Regency // Bea Koch

Bess of Hardwick // Mary S. Lovell

The Royal Art of Poison // Eleanor Herman 

The Strangest Family: The Private Lives of George III, Queen Charlotte, and the Hanoverians // Janice Hadlow

Palaces of Pleasure: From Music Halls to the Seaside to Football; How the Victorians Invented Mass Entertainment // Lee Jackson

Favourite books about current social/political issues (?? for lack of a better term)

Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power // Lola Olufemi

Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Worker Rights // Molly Smith, Juno Mac

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race // Reni Eddo-Lodge

Trans Britain: Our Journey from the Shadows // Christine Burns

Me, Not You: The Trouble with Mainstream Feminism // Alison Phipps

Trans Like Me: A Journey For All Of Us // C.N Lester

Brit(Ish): On Race, Identity, and Belonging // Afua Hirsch 

The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence, and Cultural Restitution // Dan Hicks

Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls: A Handbook for Unapologetic Living // Jes M. Baker

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot // Mikki Kendall

Denial: Holocaust History on Trial // Deborah Lipstadt

Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape // Jessica Valenti, Jaclyn Friedman

Don’t Touch My Hair // Emma Dabiri

Sister Outsider // Audre Lorde 

Unicorn: The Memoir of a Muslim Drag Queen // Amrou Al-Kadhi

Trans Power // Juno Roche

Breathe: A Letter to My Sons // Imani Perry

The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment // Amelia Gentleman

Happy Fat: Taking Up Space in a World That Wants to Shrink You // Sofie Hagen

Diaries, memoirs & letters

The Diary of a Young Girl // Anne Frank

Renia’s Diary: A Young Girl’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust // Renia Spiegel 

Writing Home // Alan Bennett

The Diary of Samuel Pepys // Samuel Pepys

Histoire de Ma Vie // Giacomo Casanova

Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger // Nigel Slater

London Journal, 1762-1763 // James Boswell

The Diary of a Bookseller // Shaun Blythell 

Jane Austen’s Letters // edited by Deidre la Faye

H is for Hawk // Helen Mcdonald 

The Salt Path // Raynor Winn

The Glitter and the Gold // Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough

Journals and Letters // Fanny Burney

Educated // Tara Westover

Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading // Lucy Mangan

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? // Jeanette Winterson

A Dutiful Boy // Mohsin Zaidi

Secrets and Lies: The Trials of Christine Keeler // Christine Keeler

800 Years of Women’s Letters // edited by Olga Kenyon

Istanbul // Orhan Pamuk

Henry and June // Anaïs Nin

Historical romance (this is a short list because I’m still fairly new to this genre)

The Bridgerton series // Julia Quinn

One Good Earl Deserves a Lover // Sarah Mclean

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake // Sarah Mclean

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics // Olivia Waite

That Could Be Enough // Alyssa Cole

Unveiled // Courtney Milan

The Craft of Love // EE Ottoman

The Maiden Lane series // Elizabeth Hoyt

An Extraordinary Union // Alyssa Cole

Slightly Dangerous // Mary Balogh

Dangerous Alliance: An Austentacious Romance // Jennieke Cohen

A Fashionable Indulgence // KJ Charles

[curiousb]

The Churchill Family Album: Volume XII

Wake up, sleepyhead...

it’s baby-throwing time!

Janet’s toddler stats:

~ Scorpio 8 / 8 / 9 / 7 / 4

~ Athletic / Neat

~ OTH: Sport

Life as an only toddler can get a bit lonely at times.

That’s better - hanging out with dad, while he...does whatever he’s doing on the computer.

Flora proving that she’s still got it.

It’s a family thing.

And devoted grandmother Mary makes sure that Janet gets an early start on her musical journey, just as her own children did.

Musical education gets interrupted for bath time.

Here we go again then!

Becoming parents themselves seems to have softened these two, and the twins attempt a cautious reconciliation, on one of Crawford’s rare visits to his family home.

Janet has a little brother - welcome, Marcus! Another redhead, also with his grandma Harriet’s brown eyes.

[rabbitcruiser]

Grimes Point Archaeological Area, Fallon NV (No. 3)

It’s one thing to read about the artwork created by Nevada’s indigenous peoples, but it’s an entirely different experience to see these prehistoric masterpieces in person, especially when they’ve blended with nature. That’s exactly what you’ll find at Grimes Point Archaeological Area along the Loneliest Road in America, minutes east of Fallon, Nevada.

About seven miles east of Fallon along the Loneliest Road in America, a short interpretive trail weaves among a rocky canvas etched with prehistoric petroglyphs. About 1.5 miles beyond lies Hidden Cave, a four-millennia-old Paiute-Shoshone storage site, which can be toured with guides from the Churchill County Museum.

Source

[cayenne-twilight]

Hi! Would you answer 🎨🐈🧟 for the ask meme? Thanks :D

🎨- what is your favorite piece of official artwork? I had four of these but two asks with this question so I’ll do two each.

I don’t really know what to add. Just look at them. Luke is the common denominator in all my favorite artworks; he just makes everything 10x more babey. That post about the sweetest picture of Clive being that screenshot of him smiling after the slot machine gun battle is Wrong because these exist.

🐈- best animal character? I love all the animals, but I don’t want to say anything super basic so I’m gonna go with Claudia the demon cat

Is he a robot made specifically for Dahlia or is he real? If he’s a robot was there once an og Claudia? Why does he have a feminine name? So many questions. He can be your angle... or your devil. 😈

🧟- zombie apocalypse team

*Mario voice*: I use-a the ancient meme template

I feel like this warrants a little explanation. I would not trust Paul under normal circumstances, but during an apocalypse I would trust him with my life. It’s like a Winston Churchill situation almost. Emmy is obviously going to kick zombie ass, and Clive piloted a straight up tank. I feel like his magic wand is gun and its only spell is shoot. Layton is obvious, and I used adult Luke for medic because he delivered a got damn baby, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was studying some sort of medicine in America. Vets are always the medics in apocalypse movies and that’s a popular hc major for him. Descole should be able to take out zombies with ease unless one of them is infected Bronev in which case he’s screwed. Beasley is THE best mascot. Also we’ll need his bee powers to revive the natural world post-apocalypse so that all plants and animals don’t die. Agnes is there for the irony. She kept making all these ominous predictions about death and destruction, and now it’s actually happening. It would be so cliche and poetic if the “heeeed my warniiing” npc was the first to get killed because everyone else would be like, “omg she was right this whole time, this is really serious, and we should’ve listened to her but now it’s too late.” In this scenario Flora is sitting in a zombie proof vault with an emergency flamethrower in case they need to hack into something.

Thank you for asking!

[dukereviewsmovies]

Duke Reviews: Dumbo (1941)

Hello, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews Where We Are Continuing Our Look At Disney...

By Talking About Walt Disney's 4th Animated Feature, Dumbo...

Based On The Book By Helen Aberson And Harold Pearl, This Film Is About A Baby Elephant Named Dumbo, Who Is Laughed At For His Big Ears When In Actuality He Is Capable Of Flying By Using Them...

So What Are We Waiting For Let's Dive Into Dumbo And See If It's As Good As I Remember It...

The Film Starts With An Odd Intro, Before Going Into The First Song, Look Out For Mr. Stork..

Because We Can't Have Animals Having Sex In Disney Animated Movies So We Have To Do This...

And It's A Good Song For What It Is...

The Next Day, The Animals And Performers In The Circus Board The Casey Jr. Circus Train Which Leads Into Our Next Song...

(Start At 1:09)

And I Absolutely Love This Song, Whenever I Hear It I Can't Help But Sing Along While Thinking Of The Fantasyland Attraction Which Is One Of My Favorite Attractions At The Park..

But As The Train Travels, Mrs. Jumbo And The Other Elephants (One Of Them Voiced By Verna Felton)

Disney Showcase: Verna Felton

Character Roles (Aside From Her Role In Dumbo):

The Fairy Godmother In Cinderella

The Queen Of Hearts In Alice In Wonderland

Aunt Sarah In Lady And The Tramp

Flora And The Queen In Sleeping Beauty

And The Wife Of Colonel Hathi In The Jungle Book

As I Was Saying, Mrs Jumbo And The Other Elephants Are Visited By A Stork (Voiced By Sterling Holloway)

Disney Showcase: Sterling Holloway

Character Roles (Aside From His Role In Dumbo):

Adult Flower In Bambi

The Cheshire Cat In Alice In Wonderland

Kaa In The Jungle Book

Roquefort The Mouse In The Aristocats

And Winnie The Pooh In The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh

Anyway The Stork Delivers A Baby To Mrs. Jumbo And Sings Happy Birthday Before Taking Off, So Jumbo And The Other Elephants Can See The Baby But When He Sneezes It's Discovered That He Has Big Ears..,

With The Other Elephants Laughing And Nicknaming The Baby Dumbo, Jumbo Teaches Them A Lesson Before Ignoring Them...

(End At 0:58)

With It Starting To Storm The Roustabouts Get To Work, Setting Things Up Which Leads To Our Next Song...

(Start At 0:27)

And This Is Probably The Only Song In This Movie That I Don't Like, I Know What They Were Going For With This Song But I Just Don't Like It...

The Next Day, The Circus Comes To Town With A Big Parade...

However, When People Come To The Circus There's An Incident Between An Obnoxious Little Boy And Dumbo. When The Kid Goes To Far, Jumbo Protects Her Baby By Giving The Boy A Swat On The Butt...

But Catching The Attention Of The Ringmaster And The Other Performers And Trainers Of The Circus, They Chain Jumbo Up And Label Her A Mad Elephant...

With The Others Thinking Jumbo Went Too Far Despite Defending Her Baby...

Hello, Any Mother Would Have Done The Same, You Old Broads Whether It's Lady Like Or Not!

I Realize This Was Made In The 1940's But Still!...

They Shun Dumbo Entirely Which Leads Timothy Mouse To Teach Those Bitches A Lesson Before Befriending Dumbo And Deciding To Become His Benefactor...

Overhearing That The Ringmaster Intends On Using The Elephants To Make A Large Pyramid But Having No Idea Of How To End It. Timothy Tells The Ringmaster While He Sleeps To Make Dumbo His Climax By Having Him Jump On A Springboard To The Tip Top Of The Pyramid...

The Next Night, The Ringmaster Does The Trick In The Show But When Dumbo Runs To Jump, He Trips Over His Ears And Knocks Over The Entire Pyramid And The Big Top Altogether...

With The Other Elephants In Traction, They Decide That Dumbo Is No Longer An Elephant When They Hear The Ringmaster Has Made Him A Clown As Punishment For His Screw Up..

To Which I Only Have To Say One Thing...

While The Crowd Responds Well To The Clowns Act With Dumbo, They Decide To Alter The Act In The Next Performance Making The Platform Higher Than In The Original Act...

Visiting Mrs. Jumbo's Cell, We Get The Most Emotional Song In This Movie...

(Start At 0:43)

And Yes, I'd Be Heartless To Not Admit That Yes, 9 Times Out Of 10 I Do Cry At This Scene, Hell, I Cry At It More Than Bambi's Mother's Death Which We'll Cover Next Week But Still...

Telling Dumbo To Cheer Up, They Go To Get A Drink Of Water Not Knowing That The Clowns Dropped A Bottle Of Wine Into The Pail They're Drinking Out Of...

But Doing So Causes Them To See Images Of Pink Elephants Which Leads Into The Song You Think We're Leading Into...

(End At 1:42)

The Next Morning, Timothy And Dumbo Wake Up In A Tree Where They Meet A Pair Of Black Crows...

As I Said When Dumbo And Timothy Wake Up In A Tree The Next Morning, They Meet A Pair Of Black Crows (With 2 Of Them Played By James Baskett Who Played Uncle Remus In Song Of The South (Which I Will Not Be Reviewing) And Cliff Edwards Who Was The Original Voice Of Jiminy Cricket)...

Figuring Out That Somehow Dumbo Must Have Flown Them Up The Tree, It Leads The Crows To Make Fun Of Dumbo By Singing The Next Song..

And I Love This Song. Yes, The Crows Are Racist But Without Them We Wouldn't Have This Song That Everyone Knows..

But Telling The Crows Dumbo's Story, The Crows Feel Bad About Making Fun Of Dumbo And Decide To Help Him Fly By Giving Him A Magical Feather To Give Him The Confidence To Fly...

Returning To The Circus, Dumbo Does The Clowns Act And (Aside From Losing The Feather) He Flies...

And That's Dumbo And Despite Being A Good Movie With A Good Story It Is Rather...Short...

Don't Get Me Wrong, I Liked Nearly Everything About This Movie, It's Just That Unlike Snow White, Pinocchio And Fantasia Which Were Longer Dumbo Was Shorter Than Them. But Either Way I Say See It...

Be Sure To Check Out Duke Reviews Xtra This Week As We Look At The Remake Of Dumbo So Till Then, This Is Duke, Signing Off...

[swearronchanel]

ep 8.02 comments

nobody reads these anymore but idc I have thoughts and opinions to shout into the void

no one even cares about what I have to say i really don’t know why I still do this 😂 but it’s kinda fun to re them back later so f*ck it I guess

yasss new energy all 2019 and 1964

My queen almost knocking over a child

remember the last time shelagh wore the cape she threw up LMAO

ALREADY LOVE THIS PURE FAMILY 😭😭

“And they say it’s the foreigners who are dirty..” RUDE BUT WOW THE TEA THO SJSJSJSJ IT’S SCALDING

this little girl is already hustling, as she should

This already kind of reminds me of Jenny Lee and that old man (Joe?) but maybe it’s not the same we’ll see

damn where do hoarders even get all their junk?

I love Lucille’s sass also can I call her Lucy? Cause we love

Ghana’s independence Yass! down with empires & colonialism!!!! ((Omg speaking of colonialism regular coca cola is more expensive than any other soda here in the Uk bc of sugar tax? Like LMAO this is why we declared independence 😭😭😂😂))

“My home is my business”.. is she wrong tho??

 Oh oops maybe she is

VIOLET BUCKLE 2020 😂😂

LMFAOOO “ ..until i’ve read your manifesto” WE STAN PHYLLIS OUR POLITICALLY CONSCIOUS QUEEN

Omg this kid is so adorable

I LOVE SISTER MJ

BEATRIX LOOKS SO DAMN GOOD WHAT A LOOKKKK thriving all 1964!!

Vi is serving some Jackie O looks I approve

vi is underrated she’s so sweet ya don’t show her love

AYE

what’s wrong with him ?😭 they all have pains rn omg, is it maybe sickle cell anemia ?!!

LMAO ok Sister Hilda they lowkey don’t like you

“I’ll stand and manicure my nails” LMAO Id  say something slick like that

also would pass on a task like that too

“My Greeks!” I LOVE SISTER MONICA JOAN AND HOW SHE MAKES FRIENDS 😭😭 that was so cute

A BABY GIRL, SO CUTE

Shut up Sister Hilda something is happening to Flora !!

Wait his name is Matthew aww that’s my brother then😭

wow my eyes are sweating this is so pure

Fred is back on his bullshit 😂😂

Vi telling off Fred as she should

Trixie with the intelligent tea!

Laying in bed with a face mask big ass mood Beatrix

LUCILLE LOVES SYNDEY POITIER 😂we stan

COMMIES

“Mr Gagarin can take me into orbit any day of the week” LMFAOO I HEAR U TRIX

🎤🎼 I GOT SUNSHINEEEEE🎤 AHHH I LOVE THIS SONG

TALKING BOUT MY GIRLLLLLLL!! MY GIRL

“She looks like a grumpy old man” LMAOOO all newborns do tbh😭 yes I said it

Oh no she’s been on the floor this makes me so sad 😭

LMAO TIM IS ME ID BE LOSING MY SHIT WITH 3 little kids in my house 😂😂

But shelagh in slacks we love the laura petrie vibes

also the turner’s literally moved so tim didn’t have to share a room yet here he is? some bullshittt lmaoo the kid can’t catch a break

why is Fred acting up 😭 c’mon

SICKLE CELL! I CALLED IT ! YA OWE ME

Tim still not in bed bc math ruins everyone’s life

This old woman is breaking my heart stoppp

Dr Turner is such a corny dad at times😂

Now the girl needs a new hustle lol

I knew she wouldn’t leave that easy

“The little ones aren’t the trouble” is Tim going savage Lmaoo

That’s the “harshest” thing he’s ever said 😂😂bc he’s an unrealistically complicit teenager, like where’s the excessive angst that I had lol?

A suffragette & ambulance driver in war?? Omg 😭she’s a hero !!! We stannnnn

Sister MJ stop 😭💔😭 MY EYES ARE SWEATING AGAIN

TRIXIE SLICK AF AHHA

damn it Fred just vote for your wife and support her

Matthew has sickle cell too fuck😭😭

“Some things are worth standing up for” I LOVE THIS ! IT’S IMPORTANT

(unless it’s some dumb/ignorant/hateful maga type of cause you’re “standing up” for bc then we don’t respect you)

VIVE LA RÉVOLUTION OMG 😂😭

Mrs Millgrove is a revolutionary queen

“A woman of substance can make a life anywhere” I can’t take this my heart 😭😭❤️💔

THE TRIUMPHANT MUSIC WHILE SHE WALKS OUT ALL DRESSED & WEARING HER MEDAL I CANT THIS IS POWERFUL

this is way better than the first episode

This episode is stabbing at all angles of my heart

“She’s strong” “it runs in the family” someone push me off a cliff so i can stop being a weepy baby

ok but f*ck Churchill sorry not sorry his racist + eugenist ass..

But GO VI

There u go Fred 😭be nice to ur wife

Lucille is going to visit!

OMG IF SHE’S DEAD I LITERALLY CAN NOT DEAL

NOOO NOOO

FCKKKKK😭😭😭 

NO WHY WOULD THEY END IT LIKE THIS💔

The writers can catch these hands for making me such an emotional wreck rn 😭

She wrote them into her will I want to end myself omfg I’m trying so hard not to blubber in front of my flatmate😭😭

BEATRIX LOOKING GOOD AGAIN I LOVE THAT OUTFIT

AND VAL’S TOO

WE LOVE QUEENS WHO EXERCISE THEIR RIGHT TO VOTE .. AND WITH STYLE *woody from toy story voice*

“It had been a year of change. A year of looking back at the distance we had travelled. But also to the future, the road that lay ahead..” All 1964/2019❤️

“Courage can’t not moved mountains, but it can show us how to climb, find a way, forge a path that we believe in...” !!

wow ok this was so good I cant process all my feelings but this was way better than episode 1 sorry not sorry

[rentcampervan]

5 National Parks You Cannot Miss on your Visit to Melbourne

When we have a campervan rental Melbourne, the itch to go on a roadtrip and visit some incredible places doesn’t go away. If anything, you want to hit the road for an adventure and grab some pleasant moments. The same happens when you go to Melbourne, which is home to the best cricket ground, one of the best monuments and several heritage/historical places. It is known as the sporting capital of the world. If you are in Melbourne, you cannot escape these aspects of the city. However, there is more to Melbourne than culture, history and sports. There is a side that is hidden deep in the parks and rainforests. Here, we will take a look at all the national parks that are added to the must-visit list of Melbourne. 1.    Wilsons Promontory National Park Popularly known as Wilsons Prom, this is home to several rugged granite mountains and whole set of interesting wildlife. You will see some beautiful animals including the kangaroos and wombats hidden peacefully in this national park. This place is where you should take your motorhome hire Melbourne for a trip into the wild and the beautiful. It houses scenic beauty with wildlife that need to be protected. You can spend an entire day at the National Park; once you are done looking at the species, you can go to the Norman beach. There are several other beaches as well where you can go snorkeling or to just lie down. 2.    Churchill National Park This park is located along a 271 hectare area land in Greater Melbourne. You will find several native animals, birds and reptiles in this park. It was built in the year 1944 in honor of the Prime Minister of England Sir Winston Churchill. Apart from bird watching, people can take the walking or hiking trails for a quick adventure. There are biking paths too in this park. The ground is built to own some spectacular picnic spots and barbeque tables as well. you can stay in your campervan rental Melbourne in the night to watch some unique animal species. 3.    Organ Pipes National Park It is located on the cliff of one of the oldest volcanic lava flows in the world. You can climb the volcano and then take the walk to the river valley to see this beautiful national park. This walk has been regarded by most as short and steep. It houses the native flora and fauna that can pique your interest. You might even spot the eastern bearded dragon while in this park. It is a great place for picnics and barbeque. You might find some nice walking paths in the forest. You may want to get a guided tour of the lava creeks and the history of the park. 4.    Alpine National Park This is yet another famous national park located in Melbourne. You can find some of the endangered species happily residing in here. It is home to the broad toothed mouse and tree frogs. Apart from being a space to protect animals, it is also designed for picnics and some quality time. you can even spot some nice walking trails while in this part of Melbourne. 5.    Yarra Ranges National Park This should be on your list of must visit national parks. You can take the motorhome hire Melbourne to this place. It is located along central Victoria, and is one of the most accessible parks. It is quite famous for its choice of species. Among the different plants, you will spot the waterfalls that make this place look nice and unique. It also houses nice walking trails and unique species of birds.