Not Just A Name

10th August, 1941. Church in the morning. In the evening Bertie Fisher came over to discuss future CO of 17th Lancers, to replace one that had just been killed in an aeroplane accident. (War Diaries, Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke)

Top Secret

I haven’t read Samuel Pepys, The Unequalled Self, by Claire Tomalin since it was published eighteen years ago. It is very good. You will be aware that Pepys wrote his diary for only a decade, the 1660s, and wrote in shorthand to keep the contents secret from prying eyes. He had a point.

Temple Bar

Wouldn’t it be grand if Temple Bar is where lawyers go for a slurp but they frequent El Vino instead. May I digress?

Coronavirus Chronicle IX

It’s a strange world in the UK. Covid restrictions, although only guidance, are repressive – with any luck of the virus.

The Battle of Bouvines

The Battle of Bouvines is not one of those famous battles like Agincourt, Crécy, Blenheim, Waterloo, El Alamein. This is simply because, in spite of being in an alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor, Otto IV, and having numerical superiority the English army was given a good beating by King Philip Augustus of France. As… Continue reading The Battle of Bouvines