BLOGS AND OTHER TIDBITS
In the Margins
Every book has margins. So does history.
That’s where I live — in the gaps between what was recorded and what actually happened, between the famous figures and the forgotten ones who stood beside them. Pull up a chair. I’ll be sharing what I’m researching, what’s surprising me, and why some stories simply refuse to let go until they’re told
Life Under the 1940s Hollywood Studio System; What the Golden Age Really Cost
A look at the 1940s Hollywood studio system, the contracts, columns, and quiet control that shaped the Golden Age, and why that world still fascinates me.
England’s 1960s Fashion Revolution: The Decade the Hemline Rose and the Rules Fell
Inside England’s 1960s fashion revolution, from Audrey Hepburn’s elegance to Twiggy’s rebellion, and what it reveals about a nation redefining itself.
The Perils of the English Manor in the 1960s: Why So Many Great Houses Were Lost
A look at why English manor houses in the 1960s faced death duties, lost heirs, and a changing economy, and how that quiet unraveling shaped my research and my writing.
The Devotion of a Dog, in Fiction and in Life
Nancy Polk Hall on the dog who sat with her through her first novel, the one who walked into her second, and why fiction’s dogs carry such honest weight.
What History Teaches Us About Choosing the Life That Calls You
Nancy Polk Hall explores a pattern she keeps finding in the archives: the people history remembers are so often the ones who trusted their own calling over everyone else’s certainty.
The England I Carry With Me — And the Story It Became
Nancy Polk Hall grew up in 1960s England. Decades later, that world became Death at Brookhaven. A reflection on the childhood that quietly shaped a novel.
A Letter is Waiting for You
In an age of notifications and noise, Caroline writes letters.
Letters from Caroline is a subscription like no other — original stories from history’s margins, delivered the old-fashioned way: straight to your mailbox. No inbox. No algorithm. Just a envelope, a story, and a moment to slow down.