Last weekend I had an interesting tour to Chartwell House, the home of wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. In fact it was something of a family outing as the lovely couple I took there were also Churchills and distantly related to the great man. Obviously it would be impossible to write a single post… Continue reading Churchill – When a picture is worth a thousand words.
Tag: history
Beauty & The Beast – Double Standards in Ancient Greece
Standards of beauty have always changed through the years and from country to country. What is fashionable in one time and place may not be in the other. Whilst today is most Western countries it is considered trendy to sport a glowing sun tan, a few centuries ago being as white as a ghost was… Continue reading Beauty & The Beast – Double Standards in Ancient Greece
Cultural Vandalism – The destruction of priceless monuments by ISIS / ISIL
One of my most popular blog posts that I have ever written was on the ongoing destruction of historic Mecca by Saudi Arabia and whilst one day soon I hope to write more on the topic, I thought for now it was important to write about some of the destruction of priceless artifacts that is… Continue reading Cultural Vandalism – The destruction of priceless monuments by ISIS / ISIL
A Guided Tour Inside The Houses Of Parliament
The last year or so I have probably visited Parliament a dozen times but always from the outside. I’ve been in before when I was about 10 years and remember bits and pieces of the interior and especially inside the famous clock tower of Big Ben and the unusual scenario of being deafened by the… Continue reading A Guided Tour Inside The Houses Of Parliament
A Brief History of Parliament
On Thursday evening I was kindly invited on a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament by my local MP, Richard Harrington. Before I write-up a post about the tour itself I thought this would give a great opportunity to write a little about Parliament itself. Though there were bodies with some parliamentary like qualities… Continue reading A Brief History of Parliament
Sintra – The Jewel in the crown of Lisbon
Having spent all day on the Friday sight-seeing around Lisbon we were eagerly awaiting Saturday, our second day in Portugal and our only full day. As there is so much to see in Lisbon I had planned to spend the second day in some of the many museums and galleries but then we thought about… Continue reading Sintra – The Jewel in the crown of Lisbon
Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon
It had been a long old winter with two potentially serious health scares that thankfully were gradually eliminated over repeated visits to doctors, hospitals and specialists. With good news ringing in my ears and strong encouragement from some friends I vowed to make up for lost time and treat myself to a weekend away. I wanted to… Continue reading Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon
No-takers for Paradise?
A week or so ago I wrote about the famous mutiny on HMS Bounty and the island of Pitcairn in the South Pacific. It turns out that though at one time the island was home to several hundred people, over the years the number has called away to under 50 and most of them are at… Continue reading No-takers for Paradise?
Terra Nullius, enclaves & the strange case of Bir Tawil – The land that nobody wants.
When European nations were looking at empire building there were a number of sham reasons used to justify it. Either religious edicts from Rome, pure Ethnocentrism from France (the belief of one race being superior to all others) or in the case of Great Britain Terra Nullius. It was the Romans who first came up… Continue reading Terra Nullius, enclaves & the strange case of Bir Tawil – The land that nobody wants.
Captain Bligh, Fletcher Christian and The Mutiny on The Bounty
HMS Bounty was a small and rather unremarkable ship that was bought and re-fitted for the Royal Navy for a not particularly exciting mission but little did anyone onboard realise their names would go down in maritime history. It started off as an experiment, to carry Breadfruit plants from Tahiti to the West Indies in… Continue reading Captain Bligh, Fletcher Christian and The Mutiny on The Bounty
Stephen Liddell 