Hunting the wren – the hunt begins
Why are we here? Everyone has a blog in them - a subject that intrigues them, perplexes them, excites them and keeps them awake at night on the odd occasion.…
Victorian values
I’m rather in awe of Jeremy Paxman. Yes, he’s a sharp investigative journalist, and the grumpy presenter of University Challenge, who seems smarter than most of the students. But he’s…
Dragons’ teeth
On your trips out and about, do you sometimes spot random stuff - lumps of concrete, bits of iron, abandoned huts and sheds, strange buildings in the middle of nowhere…
Saint necessarily so
Last year for me, a small pleasure, in that wild west virtual saloon named Twitter, was reading the latest posts from the Reverend Richard Coles. Yes, that one - him…
Acci-dental history
I’m a little down-in-the-mouth at the moment. A trip to the dentist has proved very painful: to my cheque book as much as anything. But no experience is ever wasted,…
The French Connection
When I was a young thing, my maternal grandmother would tell me the family tales. “We’re descended from Huguenots, you know”, she’d say proudly. Fast-forward too many years, and you’ll…
Norman Wisdom
What’s the first date you learned at school, in those dull history lessons? No question, it was of course that of the Battle of Hastings. 1066 (and All That).…
Station to station
Hello. It’s been a while. Quite a frantic few months, but now I seem to have found some time to hunt wrens again… Regular readers of this blog might recall…
Hymn to Her
My next post was going to be about the legacy of nasty Normans, and the wrongs they inflicted on those poor Anglo-Saxons. But Norman/Saxon tensions have been around for a…
Calendar Girl
I wish you all belated Easter greetings. This time last year I was posting about sacred chickens, pagan hares and Easter - or rather Eostre’s - bunnies. This time around,…
Rosie the rivetter
It’s National Women’s month, and International Women’s Day has just passed. So I thought it a good time to turn an eye upon women’s place in the world of work.…
Surely, Templars?
Everyone likes a good conspiracy theory, so I thought we’d start off with some fun. In 1982, a ‘non-fiction’ book was published with the title The Holy Blood and the…
Keep the home fires burning – please!
Here’s another post about the first world war. It’s such a compelling period to study: it’s so close in time to us, yet it’s slowly receding into “proper” history. My…