A Five-Minute History: From Venice to Ravenscourt by Samantha Ward-Smith

A Five-Minute History: From Venice to Ravenscourt by Samantha Ward-Smith

Two years ago, I returned to one of my favourite cities — Venice — to research Ravenscourt. I knew the book had to begin there; it’s a city seemingly frozen in time: sleek gondolas, glittering palazzi, those narrow secret canals, and the bustle and elegance of San Marco.

My first stop was Palazzo Grimani di Santa Maria Formosa, once home to the Grimani family and their stunning collection of antiques. I’ll never forget stepping into the Tribune Room and seeing the sculpture of Ganymede soaring up to the heavens — it brought tears to my eyes and found its way into the novel as a key motif.

I drew on other Venetian palazzi too, including the Palazzo Contarini Fasan, said to be the House of Desdemona. Legend has it that Nicola Contarini, nicknamed the Moor, lived there with his wife Palma Querini who became so fed up of his jealousy and violent rages that she returned to her family.

Travelling to Venice in the 19th century would have taken about 55 hours by train via Paris, Munich, and the Brenner Pass, according to the Baedeker guide, with a gondola to one’s hotel on arrival. At that time a rich Victorian could have stayed at the famous Hotel Danieli, once the Palazzo Dandolo. It was converted into a hotel in 1824 by Guiseppe Dal Niel, known as Danieli. It is still one of the most famous hotels in Venice. I drew on the letters of Effie Ruskin who stayed at the hotel with her famous husband John Ruskin between 1849-1852 just after the city was recovering from the war with the Austrians.  Another inspiration was the Grand Hotel Britannia (now the St. Regis), famed for its electric lights and gardens.

Though I missed visiting San Servolo, the island asylum that features in the book, Effie Ruskin’s 1850 letters vividly describe its gardens and inhabitants. I did, however, enjoy coffee at Florian’s in St. Mark’s Square, founded in 1720 and famously one of the first cafés to admit women.

Carnival plays its part in the book as a metaphor for what lies behind the beautiful mask we can present to the world. Though officially abolished in 1707, Carnival reappeared in private form in the 19th century. Effie Ruskin herself wrote of masked balls and the dazzling Cavalchina ball which traditionally closes Carnival.

Back in London, Ushington House was inspired by Spencer House in St James’s — beautifully restored and still owned by the Spencer family. It is currently on a long lease to the Rothschilds who use it as offices. In the 1980s, Jacob Rothschild funded the restoration of the state rooms and garden to their original appearance and tours are available on Sundays.  I also drew from the Wallace Collection for interior details.

The novel’s social backdrop explores women’s rights and slavery. In mid-Victorian England, women’s legal rights were shockingly limited: a married woman’s body belonged to her husband. In 1857 men could divorce women on the grounds of adultery but a woman could not divorce her husband on the same charge. Insanity after marriage however did not invalidate the marriage. Up until 1891 a husband could still imprison his wife in her own home.

By 1867, groups like the Manchester National Society for Women’s Suffrage (MNSWS) began fighting for change, leading to the 1882 Married Women’s Property Act which allowed women to own and control property in their own right, and, later, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage (NUWSS) led by Millicent Fawcett.

As for slavery, it was abolished in the British Empire in 1833 and in the U.S. by 1865, though illegal trafficking persisted — the last known slave ship, the Clotilda, arrived in Alabama in 1860.

The role of the asylum is a common thread within the book and it has a very disturbing history. Asylums are also a well-known trope of Victorian literature past and present – the mad woman in the attic is both terrifying and depressing. In the 1880s, when my book is set, a woman could still be committed far too easily to an asylum by her husband or family.

Ticehurst House Hospital was opened as a private lunatic asylum in Ticehurst, East Sussex, in 1792. The clientele was increasingly upper class as 19th Century progressed. In the 1820s a prospectus was issued with illustrations of the asylum and grounds which included a pagoda, a gothic summer house, and a lake. Private asylums such as Ticehurst were more likely to admit women on flimsy evidence or on the signatures of well-paid doctors known as ‘mad doctors’ i.e. those willing to certify a woman as insane.

And finally, Ravenscourt itself. Its model is the magnificent Tyntesfield, a Gothic Revival mansion near Bristol built in 1863. When I visited, I found endless inspiration — from the destruction of the Glass House to the stag heads in the billiard room, to Lady Blanche Gibbs’ medicine cabinet stocked with opium and poison. Standing in that great hall with its impressive lantern roof, I could almost imagine Arabella watching from the gallery above.

Ravenscourt

By Samantha Ward-Smith

Publication Date: October 31st, 2025

Publisher: Mabel and Stanley Publishing

Pages: 343

Genre: Historical Fiction / Gothic Historical Romance

He wanted to be gone from the dark enclosing room, with its mocking misery, to be gone from this house of nightmares, of shattered dreams, and discovered secrets which could not be put back in the box.

Venice, 1880.

Alexander, Viscount Dundarran, seeks refuge from scandal amidst the fading grandeur of crumbling palazzos during the infamous Carnival in the city. There he encounters the enigmatic Lady Arabella Pembrook—a young, beautiful widow. Both are scarred by their pasts but find solace in each other and a chance at redemption.

But when duty calls Alexander back to England upon his father's death, a darker journey begins. Travelling to Ravenscourt, the decaying estate once belonging to Arabella’s late husband, Alexander must confront the house’s disturbing legacy which has echoed through the generations. Within its walls lie secrets that refuse to stay buried and will threaten everything he thought he knew. But can Alex uncover the truth in time?

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Samantha Ward-Smith

Samantha Ward-Smith is the author of Tower of Vengeance, her debut historical novel set in the Tower of London during the 13th century, and the forthcoming Ravenscourt, a Victorian Gothic tale unfolding across Venice, London, and the windswept Lancashire moors.

She lived in London for over three decades, building a career in investment banking while also pursuing a PhD in English at Birkbeck. For the past 13 years she has volunteered at the Tower of London, an experience that provided invaluable historical insight and directly shaped her writing.

Now based in Kent by the sea, Samantha continues to explore the intersections of history, place, and story, writing in the company of her two cats, Belle and Rudy.

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Five Minute History – The Changing Face of Medicine in 17th Century Italy by Deborah Swift

Five Minute History – The Changing Face of Medicine in 17th Century Italy 

by Deborah Swift

The Cameo Keeper focuses on medicine and healing in the 17th Century, a time of significant transformation in Italian medicine. As Europe shifted from the Renaissance towards the era of scientific exploration, Italy became a key centre for medical thought and innovation, blending ancient traditions of healing and herbalism with new discoveries. The old medicine and the new were less-than-happy bedfellows, and the advent of printing meant that men’s version of remedial medicine was more often promoted in written texts than the women’s traditional remedies. Men’s thought was widely disseminated in printed books, whereas women’s cures were left in the kitchen notebooks.

The Old Tradition

At the dawn of the seventeenth century, Italian medicine was still deeply rooted in the classical theories inherited from Greek and Roman scholars such as Galen and Hippocrates. Universities such as Padua, Bologna, and Pisa were renowned for their medical faculties, teaching aspiring physicians from these ancient texts. In my novel, Jacopo has studied at Padua University, but he is now intent on a career in the Santo Spirito Hospital in Rome. Medical education was still emphasising the balance of the four humours—blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile—as the foundation of health and disease.

But in the new age of medicine anatomical dissection became increasingly important, with doctors such as Giovanni Alfonso Borelli and Marcello Malpighi leading the field. Malpighi, celebrated as the "father of microscopical anatomy" for his pioneering use of the microscope, was able to observe capillaries, organs, and tissues, thus advancing the study of physiology.

Surgeons were often required to show off their skills in public demonstrations, and anatomy theatres were popular entertainment for the rich. Some of these were experiments on the dead, but there were also ‘trials’ on the living. These took the form of ‘competitions’ or ‘trials’ where those competing for a surgeon’s position would have to demonstrate their abilities before a hospital board.

The 17th century was also marked by recurrent outbreaks of plague. The outbreak in Rome in 1656 led to stringent quarantine measures – isolating affected neighbourhoods and the fumigation or burning of infected items. City states established boards of health, enhancing the management of infectious diseases. Quarantine hospitals on city outskirts became a hallmark of the new Italian public health strategy, and in Rome one of the quarantine hospitals that features in The Cameo Keeper is one run by monks, and isolated on an island in the middle of the Tiber.

Herbalism and Pharmacy

During this period, women’s role in healing changed. The old tradition of herbal remedies persisted, but influenced by the new science of chemistry, apothecaries began incorporating chemicals and metals into their preparations. Paracelsian ideas, which promoted chemical remedies over traditional humours-based treatments, began to gain ground. Italian pharmacists and physicians experimented with compounds such as antimony and mercury. 

Although women were largely excluded from formal medical education, they played crucial roles as midwives, herbalists, and caregivers. Some women, especially in religious orders, managed hospital wards and contributed to nursing and patient care.

The common people still relied on the cheaper, more available care from the women in their households, and care in hospital depended on how much you could afford to pay. 

The Cameo Keeper

Giulia Tofana Series

By Deborah Swift

Publication Date: November 11th, 2025

Publisher: Quire Books

Pages: 370

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rome 1644: A Novel of Love, Power, and Poison

Remember tonight... for it is the beginning of always
― Dante Alighieri

In the heart of Rome, the conclave is choosing a new Pope, and whoever wins will determine the fate of the Eternal City.

Astrologer Mia and her fiancé Jacopo, a physician at the Santo Spirito Hospital, plan to marry, but the election result is a shock and changes everything.

As Pope Innocent X takes the throne, he brings along his sister-in-law, the formidable Donna Olimpia Maidalchini, known as La Papessa – the female Pope. When Mia is offered a position as her personal astrologer, she and Jacopo find themselves on opposite sides of the most powerful family in Rome.

Mia is determined to protect her mother, Giulia Tofana, a renowned poisoner. But with La Papessa obsessed with bringing Giulia to justice, Mia and Jacopo's love is put to the ultimate test.

As the new dawn of Renaissance medicine emerges, Mia must navigate the dangerous political landscape of Rome while trying to protect her family and her heart. Will she be able to save her mother, or will she lose everything she holds dear?

For fans of "The Borgias" and "The Crown," this gripping tale of love, power, and poison will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

Praise for Deborah Swift:

''historical fiction that is brisk, fresh and bristling with intrigue'

~ Bookmarked Reviews

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Deborah Swift

Deborah Swift is the author of twenty novels of historical fiction. Her Renaissance novel in this series, The Poison Keeper, was recently voted Best Book of the Decade by the Wishing Shelf Readers Award. Her WW2 novel Past Encounters was the winner of the BookViral Millennium Award, and is one of seven books set in the WW2 era.

Deborah lives in the North of England close to the mountains and the sea.

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