One of my favourite areas of London and one which I have written on previously is Bloomsbury. Once the area was full of grand achitectural squares with lush green gardens as their centre piece. Even today, the area retains an air of quiet, gentle elegance though wartime bombing and construction have taken their toll on… Continue reading Humphrey Repton and the Bloomsbury Squares
Month: April 2018
RAF Icons of the Jet-Age
Concluding my short series of blog posts on iconic RAF planes to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force we finally reach the period that most of us are best familiar with. The age of the jet engine. Frank Whittle invented the jet engine in 1930 though it was Germany that got the… Continue reading RAF Icons of the Jet-Age
Lord North, the most unassuming man in a position of power ever!
One of the things I dislike most about the world is people who are boastful or prideful and this goes doubly for those who do so for very little reason whatsoever. I always find if anyone has to boast about anything then they aren’t really anything special at all. The very best people have no… Continue reading Lord North, the most unassuming man in a position of power ever!
Manfred Von Richthofen – The Red Baron
April 21st 2018 sees the 100 anniversary of the death of one of the most famous names not just in the history of air-combat but aviation generally. The Red Baron was the name given to Manfred von Richthofen, a German fighter pilot who was the deadliest flying ace of World War I. Along with some… Continue reading Manfred Von Richthofen – The Red Baron
WW2 icons of the RAF
Following on from my RAF100 post the Sopwih Camel and WW1… By 1940 the awesome might of Hitler’s Luftwaffe had been displayed in the lightning blitzkrieg offensive that annexed France in six weeks. In the aftermath the British had managed to rescue more than 300,000 troops from Dunkirk with a hastily cobbled together flotilla during… Continue reading WW2 icons of the RAF
A Brief History of the Penny
As the modern era of a cashless society rolls relentlessly onwards and due to inflation the value of it ever decreasing, the Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has raised the prospect that like the half pence in the 1980’s the Penny be removed from circulation. The fact that the banking chief claims to rarely… Continue reading A Brief History of the Penny
The legendary Sopwith Camel – Icon of WW1 fliers
The first really star plane of the Royal AirForce was the Sopwith Camel which was already in service for the Royal Flying Corps. The Camel grew out of the Sopwith Pup, a little fighter introduced in 1916, but which was soon outclassed by the German Albatroses and Halberstadts. Its name derived from the slight hump… Continue reading The legendary Sopwith Camel – Icon of WW1 fliers
100 Years of the RAF
This week sees the 100th anniversary of the oldest dedicated air force in the world, the Royal Airforce or RAF. The formation of the RAF was partly a bureaucratic cost-saving exercise by the Prime Minister Lloyd George. He wanted to bring down the expense of having two air forces in the Royal Flying Corps and… Continue reading 100 Years of the RAF
The Trafalgar Square Fourth Plinth
The Fourth Plinth is probably the most famous public art commission in the world and it all began back in 1994 when after 150 years with an empty plinth, Prue Leith, then chair of the Royal Society of Arts wrote a letter to the Evening Standard suggesting that something should be done about the empty… Continue reading The Trafalgar Square Fourth Plinth
Modern day Grave Robbers who stole from my mothers grave
I wasn’t going to write anything today; I’ve had a chest infection which turned into bronchitis and then manifested itself into something like pneumonia for the last 10-12 weeks. I have been out of the house only a handful of times in this time, two of which were to lay flowers on the grave of… Continue reading Modern day Grave Robbers who stole from my mothers grave
Stephen Liddell 