Fabulous resource for writers and readers of historical fiction

How often have you walked through a city, London for example and wished you could travel back in time to see it in, say, the Elizabethan period or during the time of Dickens, maybe to see the streets where Sherlock Holmes solved his cases? Well now, due to the expertise and sheer hard graft of a group of students at Pudding Lane Productions, you can and you can see it here. I had hoped to upload the video from YouTube but unlike these brilliant students, my grasp of all things technical is so puny, I couldn't manage it. Do go and look though, it is brilliant. They have produced this amazing fly-through of 17th century London. This has deservedly won First Prize in the Off the Map challenge, using historical data from the British Library so it is startlingly accurate. The group's blog (click here) gives fascinating insight into the detail they strove for - haunches of meat hung up at the butchers, bunches of wood as carried for kindling, the accurate representation of one of London's famous bridges. It is this attention to detail as well as their creativity that has created such an atmospheric experience. This is invaluable for both writers and readers of historical fiction, so that while we are reading maybe Samuel Pepys wonderful diaries, we can look at this wonderful visual representation and feel we are there. How long will it be I wonder before e-books have such 'fly-through' screens so that you can watch as you read to enhance the experience of reading a historical novel (I'm sure someone somewhere is already doing that!) Well done Crytek for making the award. And, from a novel writer who loves this period of history, thank you SO MUCH Pudding Lane Productions and all you talented students, for transporting me back to the past, almost as good as a time machine! AAAAAlE/b-mwTllxhc8/s320/Blog_OffTheMap_Final.jpg" />