It is 308 years since the birth of Samuel Johnson, who wrote the English language’s most comprehensive dictionary in the 1750s. So this seems as good a time as any to express my utmost contrafibularities (see below) to the man himself. Johnson, born in 1709, spent nine years working on A Dictionary of the English… Continue reading Dr Samuel Johnson, his dictionary and quotes
Category: history
Posts predominantly history related.
Wilton’s Music Hall – Victorian London Comes To Life!
If you read my review of The Limehouse Golem earlier this week, you’ll remember how much of the plot revolves around a Victorian era music hall. Music Halls were once widespread around the entire country but eventually became all but extinct with the advent of cinema, television and modern day discos and clubs. However there… Continue reading Wilton’s Music Hall – Victorian London Comes To Life!
The Limehouse Golem – Film Review
I haven’t spent much time at the cinema this year, that is mostly because I have been so busy but also due to the proliferation of those dreadful in my opinion comic book movies which rather take over the big screen. It seems I’m not alone as attendances have been way down but in the… Continue reading The Limehouse Golem – Film Review
The Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894.
As a species we can be a pretty gloomy bunch. Capable of brilliance but just as likely incapable of seeing almost the blinding obvious. These days we are seemingly doomed on a whole host of issues. Climate change, the break down of civil cohesion, over population, mass immigration on a biblical scale. Pollution, Brexit pretty… Continue reading The Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894.
The lost and hidden rivers of London
It’s easy to see London as one big mega city with just one river, what Londoners fondly call old Father Thames. When the tide of the river rises and falls it is almost as if you can see the city itself breathe. The Thames has always been the centre for life in the city even if… Continue reading The lost and hidden rivers of London
A walk along the Grand Union Canal
It’s been a very warm and sunny Bank Holiday weekend in London and I managed to wangle it so that I didn’t spend every minute of it working. During a few hours of spare time I decided to go on a 9 mile (15km) circular walk, the majority of which was through parkland and along… Continue reading A walk along the Grand Union Canal
The London fences made from stretchers
Famously many of the iron and steel railings in the U.K. were removed and melted down to help the war effort in WW2. Whether a large city park or a private residence, chances are if there was a traditional style railing or gate then it would have been melted down and recycled into things like… Continue reading The London fences made from stretchers
Of Mice And Men – The smallest monument in London
I’ve known about the mice of Philpot Lane for a year when I started researching for a forthcoming London Attractions book which I am working on but it was only on Tuesday that I finally set my eyes upon it. I was out and about on a scouting mission through the narrow lanes of Roman… Continue reading Of Mice And Men – The smallest monument in London
The festival of Raksha Bandhan
Two weeks ago today on August 7th, was the festival of Raksha Bandhan. Originating with the Hindu faith in India (though long observed by Sikhs too), it centres on a ceremony wherein a sister will tie a Rakhi (a simple cloth bracelet) on the wrist of her brother as a symbol of her love and… Continue reading The festival of Raksha Bandhan
Gertrude Bell – The Ketrun – Desert Queen
From time to time, I have written about iconic and pioneering women in relative recent history, well recent by British standards 🙂 I also sometimes write about the Middle-East which is actually the one area of life that I can actually claim to have some academic expertise. So I have finally taken the opportunity to… Continue reading Gertrude Bell – The Ketrun – Desert Queen
Stephen Liddell 