Tag: history

My first cover story!

I thought that I might give a little update on my writing as the last few weeks have been very productive ones in terms of writing.  I’m about to have an article published by a leading environmental magazine (more details when it is out) on a subject relating to water poverty in Africa.  It is… Continue reading My first cover story!

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

Another long days walk around beautiful Paris

We have been walking around 10 miles each day around Paris and on Friday we were blessed by sunny weather. It was by no means warm but if you could find somewhere out of the wind, it felt nice or at least it did under several layers. We haven’t yet got lost instead have been… Continue reading Another long days walk around beautiful Paris

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

The 50th anniversary of the film Zulu & the 135th of the Battle of Rorke’s Drift

When I was a child there were a number films that were always on television whenever there was a national holiday.  You could rely on them to appear like clockwork and these included The Great Escape, The Wizard of Oz,  James Bond and Zulu.  Thirty-five years on and not much as changed except for the… Continue reading The 50th anniversary of the film Zulu & the 135th of the Battle of Rorke’s Drift

Have they found the missing bones of King Alfred The Great?

Following the surprise identification of King Richard III in a car-park in Leicester last year, fresh impetus was given to try and fill in more of the blanks of Britain’s long line of monarchs. There are a few to choose from, King Harold who was famously killed in the Battle of Hastings in 1066 is… Continue reading Have they found the missing bones of King Alfred The Great?

Dungeness – Britain’s only desert

You’d be forgiven for thinking that I have over-indulged this holiday for putting two seemingly mutually exclusive terms in the same sentence, Britain and desert.  Yes I too thought it a bit strange, even more so as it is pouring down with rain outside at this very moment.  However dear reader, I have not lost… Continue reading Dungeness – Britain’s only desert

Nelson Mandela, the man and the times

When I was growing up as a boy in the 1980’s there were three continual stories that kept coming on the news headlines.  They were all quite similar and the images were almost interchangeable.  Though the world was on edge with the Cold War and people were sad about Tibet and China and the Kurds… Continue reading Nelson Mandela, the man and the times