Category: History

A Great Exhibition

I like reading lists. A chap called Ben Schott has taken advantage of my predilection by publishing books of them that he calls Miscellanies. Here is a list (not one of his) that interests me.

Caroline

Once upon a time, on a dark and stormy night in the North Sea – so long ago there were no wind farms or oil rigs – a funny looking boat bobbed around.

Peaky Bloomers

Peaky Blinders is a BBC crime drama series set in Birmingham immediately after World War I. It must be good – it’s on its third series. I’ve not seen it (maybe a good box set for the winter) but Dr Henry Sanford has.

Bomb Sight

I recently came across this website: www.bombsight.org. It maps where the bombs fell in the Blitz. My street had one hit. It also has accounts of those dark days in diaries, letters and memoirs.

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Categorised as History

Croissants for Breakfast

Croissant in French means crescent (and as a noun can be used to describe a new moon) but not all croissants are crescent-shaped.

A Marshal of France

The Gers countryside rolls attractively, when seen from a car. On foot the hills seem steeper and it took two hours to walk to Lectoure.

Sudak Remembered

Henry Sanford said that although he’d never been to Sudak, he visited Koktibel which is nearby in 2005. His great, great grandfather was the Russian seascape painter, Ivan Aivazovsky, who lived in Theodossia (now Feodosia). Russian readers will be familiar with Aivazovsky (1817-1900). He was more highly regarded internationally in his own lifetime than his British… Continue reading Sudak Remembered

Take a Seat

The diocese alluded to in a recent post, How Big is Your Diocese, is Sudak in the Crimea. I’d hitherto never heard of the place and never expected to hear of it again, until a few days ago.

Restoration Romp

Number 79 Pall Mall is the only one on the south side of the street that does not belong to the Crown Estate. The freehold was given to Nell Gwynn in 1676 and, in her opinion, not before time; ‘Madam Gwinn complains she has no house yett’, reported Sir Joseph Williamson in 1673.