Category: History

The Flight of Ikaros

“There is a surplus of books about modern Greece, but this one is the best for many years”, writes a reviewer in the New Statesman in the latter half of the last century.

Around the Houses

George II gave 10 Downing Street to the government to provide a home in perpetuity for Prime Ministers and First Lords of the Treasury in 1735. At the time Robert Walpole was PM.

The Aynscombes of Mortlake

“From 1689 to 1721 Cromwell House was the residence of Edward Colston (1636-1721) of the London Mercers’ Company, a major philanthropic benefactor in Bristol, his home town. In 1792 Lysons described it as an “Ancient house” and it was then associated with the Aynscombe family: Cromwell Lane was renamed Aynscombe Lane.” (London Gardens Trust)

The Deep Mani

Hitherto our transport has been a Land Rover Discovery and a Mercedes people carrier.

From Alpha to Omega

What common feature does England, Italy, North and South America have – and the Peloponnese for that matter?

Our Kind of Ambassador

At the time of the Cuban Missile crisis in 1962 the British Ambassador in Washington was David Ormsby-Gore. He did not determine events but he was an important influencer.