Paul Asling
Bio
I share a special love for London, both new and old. I began writing fiction at 40, with most of my books and stories set in London.
MY WRITING WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH, CRY, AND HAVE YOU GRIPPED THROUGHOUT.
paulaslingauthor.com
Stories (80/0)
LIFE INSIDE A MEDIEVAL BROTHEL
In the primary stages of civilisation, when people learned to trade, they soon recognised they could trade commodities for sex. And a scheme of exploitation was born and still exists to this day. In medieval times, the world became more civilised and cities and towns were growing fast. It’s where the idea of brothels took form and began one of the utmost injustices done to women.
By Paul Asling2 years ago in FYI
WESTMINSTER ABBEY
When the abbey was established by monks in 960 AD, it existed on an island on the River Thames called Thorney Island. Its elevations and stable foundations delivered the perfect position to build an abbey and the Palace of Westminster. The island no longer exists, although it has provided the name for Thorney Street in Westminster.
By Paul Asling2 years ago in FYI
ELEANOR of AQUITAINE
One of the most influential women in 12th century Europe, Eleanor of Aquitaine, debatably, was the most dominant heiress of the Middle Ages. She reigned as both queen of France and queen of England. Eleanor not only survived all but two of her 11 children, she also fought in the Crusades.
By Paul Asling2 years ago in FYI
THE MOST TERRIBLE STREET IN LONDON
Laid out in 1674, Spitalfields was London’s chief silk weaving area. And by the 18th century, Dorset Street was already looking dilapidated. In the 19th century–when the trade was disappearing, rambling, filthy lodging houses dominated it. They even enclosed the gardens so the property-owners could jam even more people into their accommodation.
By Paul Asling2 years ago in FYI
THE VICTORIAN FALLEN WOMAN
In the nineteenth century, femininity held an important position. A woman’s social and cultural role was sanctified, and the woman was protected and defended. But what women did not adhere to the ideal? A woman deviating from the norm, ‘fallen’ from virtue, was both an outcast and a threat, a victim and a scapegoat.
By Paul Asling2 years ago in FYI
LONDON’S NOTORIOUS DEVIL’S ACRE
The Devil’s Acre was an infamous slum next to Westminster Abbey that subsisted during the Victorian age. The slum had its roots in the Middle Ages when the monks at the abbey gave a haven to debtors, cheats and other criminals. It was little more than a damp, dismal swamp, and home to a community of beggars, thieves and prostitutes. Police only made infrequent visits to the area and when they did, the local residents powerfully repelled them.
By Paul Asling2 years ago in FYI
THE HISTORICAL PROSTITUTES OF LONDON’S COVENT GARDEN
Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies, published from 1757 to 1795, was an annual directory of prostitutes working in Georgian London. A small pocketbook, it was printed and published in Covent Garden and sold for two shillings and sixpence. A contemporary report of 1791 estimates its circulation at about 8,000 copies annually.
By Paul Asling2 years ago in FYI
THE 1940s LONDON BLACKOUT RIPPER
Just fifty-four years after the notorious ‘Jack the Ripper’ waged his merciless trade in cutting up to five women on the streets of London, another spree killer appeared in the shadows. This monster attacked women over six days during a cold February 1942. He was eventually caught and identified as 27-year-old Gordon Frederick Cummins.
By Paul Asling2 years ago in FYI
LONDONS BIGGEST EXPLOSION
On 19 January 1917, the most enormous explosion in its history rocked London. At 6.52 pm, a massive blast ripped through London’s Royal Docks in the East End of London. Fifty tonnes of TNT exploded in what remains London’s largest ever explosion.
By Paul Asling2 years ago in FYI