The Umbrella vs the Crown

In the course of writing Women Warriors, I wrote a lot of variations on the sentence “inherited the throne/crown” . (Or in several instances, “seized the throne/crown”. Because transfer of power is often not a bloodless event.) Eventually it dawned on me that while throne and crown can be actual objects, they are also metaphors…

Read More

The Pirate Queen

I came across Barbara Sjoholm’s The Pirate Queen: In Search of Grace O’Malley and Other Legendary Women of the Sea, when I was in the midst of my own search for Grace O’Malley, the sixteenth century Irish pirate who was a thorn in the side of English officials in Ireland.* I must admit, I’m a…

Read More