Monthly Archives: February 2013

During the darkest days of the First World War, the British Government feared a domestic enemy almost as much as the hated Hun. As men were slaughtered in the churning quagmires of the trenches, the demon drink stalked in the homes and factories of the home front. The restrictions and prohibitions that were put in place had a profound effect on domestic life which continues to […]

Fighting spirits (and beer, cider and wine)

It is a Welsh nationalist’s fantasy – an independent country boasting two ancient universities to rival Oxford and Cambridge, a free church and a Parliament dating back to the fourteenth century. The Welsh language is the universal mother tongue and the nation stands as an equal to its larger neighbour, England. These were the plans of Owain Glyndŵr, the last native Welshman to hold the title […]

The Wales that never was

The Greyhound Racing Association faced a grave problem in the late 1930s. The British seemed to have fallen out of love with dog racing, leaving stadia half full and the former cash cow looking as thin and exhausted as, well, a greyhound. Promoters came up with a breathtaking array of ideas to revitalise interest but none were as startling as the plan devised by Archer Leggett. […]

The great Romford and Harringay cheetah races!

Ivan Pavlov’s research into classical conditioning and reflex systems made his pack of laboratory dogs world famous. However, not even their celebrity as stars of the scientific world could save them during the horrendous Siege of Leningrad. As conditions worsened, the successors to Pavlov’s original dogs were eaten by famished researchers. Ivan Pavlov was a physiologist but is best remembered for his psychological observations that developed […]

Pavlovian response

York, Swindon, Crewe, Derby, Peterborough, Wolverton and Eastleigh are very different places, cities and towns spread across Britain. From ancient cathedral cities to metropolises that barely existed two centuries ago, they all share one thing; they are amongst Britain’s railway towns.  Railway towns owed their economic success and booming populations to the arrival and patronage of the railways. To be a true railway town, it wasn’t enough […]

Makin’ all t’railways cum to York

Stephen Irvine, 19 February 2013 With another birthday lurking around the corner, waiting for me like a hoodlum in a dimly-lit alleyway, it suddenly became very clear this week that my best days are firmly behind me and vanishing fast in my rear-view mirror as I hurtle down the motorway of life towards my inevitable doom. Having quite literally rolled out of bed I spied the […]

Most Like Someone From Mauritania

In the build up to long planned invasion of Nazi occupied Europe, Operation Overlord, nervous tension dominated the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) headquarters. When a series of crossword clues appeared in the Daily Telegraph with answers that were closely guarded operational codewords, the spooks were spooked. Had the whole plan been blown by a puzzle? The clue seemed innocuous: Red Indian on the Missouri. […]

Solving the puzzle

The railways were the defining invention of the industrial revolutions, transforming the countries in which they were established. They found plenty of peaceful uses as conduits for commerce, passenger transportation and the emergence of travel, but were also used as weapons of war. In fact, they would be used by the British Army almost as soon as the first UK railways were open to the public. […]

Training the troops

How did Britain’s elite live in the capital once their great London houses had become either uneconomic to run or had been sold off to pay off debts and estate taxes? They would find comfort and a home away from home in a cluster of distinctly upper crust hotels that catered to their every whim. Put yourselves, just for a whimsical moment, into the shoes of […]

Living in London luxury

The last ditch defence for London from invasion by Napoleon was, appropriately, if optimistically enough, a ditch. The Royal Military Canal, to give this rather grand ditch its rather grand title, runs for 28 miles from Seabrook (near Folkestone) to Cliff End (near Hastings). It was never tested against France’s Grande Armée, but did have some uses in taming the wild, smuggler’s paradise of the Romney […]

The Royal Military Canal – the last ditch

The London and Birmingham Railway, opened in 1838, was the Victorian equivalent of HS2. In fact, it was far more transformative than its twenty-first century successor – horses, carts, carriages and canals gave way to steam powered locomotion at speeds that radically changed the British economy, society and people. This engineering wonder heralded the start of the modern age and was built in less than five […]

The original HS2

Josef Stalin is remembered for many things – establishing a brutal dictatorship over the Soviet Union, his determination to create a buffer zone in Eastern Europe and thus close the iron curtain, the capriciousness and cruelty of the security system he set up and brutalising terror of the gulag system. It is, therefore, not surprising that Stalin’s wit and raw intelligence are rarely focused on. But […]

The wicked wit of Josef Stalin

Vaguely Interesting Snippets | 5 February 2013 According to the BBC’s Africa programme, a single ball of dung is enough to feed a dung beetle for life. It certainly explains why the insect goes to incredible lengths to roll the dung to a safe, cool and damp place for storage and impregnation with eggs. The great State of Nebraska banned almost all foreign language education in […]

Ambergris is a rare and precious gift from the ocean. It is a waxy substance found floating on the sea or sometimes washed up on a beach. For hundreds of years it was a vital ingredient in producing perfumes; it is a natural fixative that ensures sweet fragrances linger long after they are dabbed to the skin. But it can be described another way: the indigestible […]

Ambergris – floating gold

Stephen Irvine, 01 February 2013 With freezing temperatures, floods, brutal winds and Thatcher’s brave fight against illness testing the spirit of our great island of late, your humble scribe has been holed up a ’la Layne Staley in his final days; a weary recluse no longer able to fake any interest in the world around him. But, as some of your friends might well be inclined […]

Like Nailing Jelly to the Wall

The Fourth of July is celebrated as Independence Day in the United States of America. Celebration is the key word – dazzling fireworks erupting over cities and towns and families gathering at sun drenched BBQs and picnics on this best loved of public holidays. It has been officially commemorated since the 1780s and observed as a federal holiday since 1870. But are Americans celebrating on the […]

Independence Day – Fourth of July?