A strange thing happened this week whilst researching for my upcoming WW1 book, I came across a good news story! In a war that saw much of an entire generation of young men lost forever, the story of the Calpin brothers is even more amazing as not just one or two joined up but 10… Continue reading The real-life Band of Brothers: A good news WW1 story!
Tag: Culture
Bitten to death by a dead mans head: The unfortunate, deserving & true tale of Sigurd Eysteinsson
One of the slightly odd pleasures I had when I was studying at university was learning of various terrible ways people died or executed. To some degree this is normal for many historians but as I majored in amongst others, Mongol history, then it might be clear that I had more deaths than usual to… Continue reading Bitten to death by a dead mans head: The unfortunate, deserving & true tale of Sigurd Eysteinsson
The Book Thief
Yesterday I went to the cinema as I often do on a Tuesday morning, one of the benefits of working from home. Usually the cinema is empty with the staff outnumbering the movie-goers but not yesterday. The cinema is exactly 12 minutes walk away and there are usually 15 minutes of trailers before the film… Continue reading The Book Thief
The tragic genius of Vincent van Gogh
One of the things I was looking forward to when visiting Paris though was not the over-hyped Mona Lisa but the works of Vincent van Gogh in the Musee D’Orsay in Paris, one of the largest museums of modern art in the world. Van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist painter. His work is nearly always… Continue reading The tragic genius of Vincent van Gogh
Walking through a graveyard of giants
I try to go for a walk every day, it adds a bit of routine which is necessary when writing at home in the winter nearly every day. Sometimes I go along the canal, other times through parks and across the countryside along ancient pathways. Many of these areas are currently partially flooded as much… Continue reading Walking through a graveyard of giants
Visiting Montmatre, home of artists and Sacre Couer
So, we have just about reached the end of our short break in Paris. To be honest I could stay here a lot longer. There may be a few strange things about the place but overall I love it. It’s relative compactness and spacious feeling pavements and public transport are a delight and its overwhelmingly… Continue reading Visiting Montmatre, home of artists and Sacre Couer
A date with the Mona Lisa
If you’re in Paris for more than a day then you really should make the effort to visit The Louvre as we did on Sunday. It is the worlds biggest and most visited museum and is impossible to see in a single day, if only because due to its size the authorities close off different… Continue reading A date with the Mona Lisa
#FindMike has Found Mike
Yesterday I wrote about being a Good Samaritan as two events in the news occurred very close to me, one with extremely bad results and one with extremely good ones. Just a mile or so from where I live yesterday morning, a man jumped off a bridge onto the M1 motorway at 10.50am. Whether he… Continue reading #FindMike has Found Mike
Have you ever been a Good Samaritan?
Have you ever been a Good Samaritan? You don’t have to be religious to be one. I’d like to think that I am quite often, in fact most times when I leave the house. Whether it is carrying heavy bags for old people in the street, running up the road to give people back their… Continue reading Have you ever been a Good Samaritan?
The London Frost Fairs of Times Past
Lots of us remember when generally it was a lot colder when we were little. The summers were also less wet too, at least in the U.K. but no-one in their right mind would think of London as being an Artic like city and yet for about 1,000 years in the winter it was exactly… Continue reading The London Frost Fairs of Times Past
Stephen Liddell 