Monthly Archives: January 2014

If  a single event has come to represent one of the most turbulent and violent periods in British history it is the Sack of Lindisfarne. In 793, the Holy Island of Lindisfarne was attacked by Viking raiders. It was a merciless and intense attack that saw many monks put to the sword and treasures of the monastery carried away. This was only the start; the sack […]

The Sack of Lindisfarne

On 23 April 1863, President Lincoln took time away from the campaigns and politics of the US Civil War to attend a séance. Lincoln was a man famous for his pragmatism and he eschewed ostentatious religious devotion. So why did Lincoln allow a series of séances to be held at the White House? And did he ever attend one of them? Abraham Lincoln has always been […]

President Lincoln and the White House séances

Vaguely Interesting Snippets | 28 January 2014 Bananas are radioactive The world’s favourite fruit is a natural source of radioactive isotopes. It is used to demonstrate and reassure people on exposure to radiation by a measurement known as the ‘banana equivalent dose’. Flying from New York to London will give you a BED of 500 – you’d have to eat 500 bananas to get an equivalent […]

The audacious plan was executed with trademark Teutonic efficiency. By the time that the former King of the United Kingdom and Emperor of India realised he had fallen into a trap it was too late – he was a prisoner of the Abwehr and heading for the Third Reich. Whilst the Duke of Windsor had expressed certain pro-German sympathies, this outrageous treatment had certainly soured his […]

To kidnap the King

In 1066 four knights came over from Normandy to England in William the Conqueror’s retinue. They would fight alongside their duke and would be rewarded for their loyalty with grants of land in the conquered country. Almost a millennium later, their descendants still populated England as the only existing families known to descend from knights who fought at Hastings. The Malets, Giffards, Gresleys and De Marris […]

The conquerors’ long legacies

On 16 October 1946 some of the most notorious German war leaders were hanged in Nuremburg. Their execution followed a lengthy trial at which 23 of the most important leaders of the Third Reich were accused of crimes against humanity. The last words of the condemned were relayed as part of the massive media coverage of the proceedings. In the devastating aftermath of the Second World […]

Last words from Nuremburg

Vaguely Interesting Snippets | 21 January 2014 Britain has fully 108 preserved steam railways. The Economist notes that in 2011 they carried 7.1m passengers. Helping those passengers get from A to, well, usually a little bit further along the line and then back to A, are 18,000 volunteers. They range from the 20 miles of the West Somerset Railway (making it, according to the Daily Telegraph, […]

What connects Wales to Wallachia (in Romania) and Scotland’s Galloway with Gaul (an ancient name for France)? The answer is a shared etymological root – the single Proto-Germanic word – Walhaz – the strangers. Walhaz was a useful term employed by the Germanic tribes living beyond the boundaries of the ‘civilized’ Roman world. It can mean ‘foreigner’ or ‘stranger’, but can also be used to describe someone […]

Strangers in their own land

I handed over the money with a polite thank you and received a friendly but firm tá failte romhat in response. I had been cycling in County Waterford and following signs for the coastal village of Ring. In the space of a few metres I was been transported into a different world where both Waterford and Ring had been replaced by Contae Phort Láirge and An […]

Going to the Gaeltacht

The economic sanctions placed on North Korea have forced the People’s Republic to develop novel ways to sidestep western technology. Step forward Vinalon, a fabric made from the unlikely source materials of anthracite and limestone? Do rocks make for natural, luxuriant fibres? Not particularly, but the raw materials are plentiful on the Korean peninsula. So why has the rest of the world failed to succumb to […]

Juche couture – North Korea and the fabric of the future

Vaguely Interesting Snippets | 14 January 2014 The Wellington Arch on Hyde Park Corner is used as a ventilation shaft for the underground road tunnels that plunge the A4 below ground at Piccadilly and emerge to the south of Hyde Park approaching Knightsbridge. Whilst being held for trial at the International Military Tribunal held at Nuremburg, the defendants were subjected to a barrage of psychological tests. […]

The London School of Economics and Political Science has always been a small institution with a big name. Although considerably smaller in student numbers, faculty and size of estate, it has usually punched above its weight. It does all this from a cramped corner of central London. Some of its buildings have seen better days, but in recent years there has been a push to a […]

LSE – to the future and beyond!

George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire has left a powerful cultural imprint across the world. Millions have read his voluminous saga with many more gripped by the television adaptation. Martin drew inspiration from many strands of history, from England’s War of the Roses to the Icelandic sagas and tales of Viking conquest. One shadowy chapter of English history receives a prominent nod. […]

The Seven Kingdoms of England

For passengers of Britain’s luxury liners, it was an unforgettable part of the ocean crossing. The behemoths of the sea glided through the glens and highlands of Scotland, taking in some of the most spectacular Caledonian countryside as they progressed from Edinburgh to Glasgow through the engineering wonder of the age – the Mid-Scotland Ship Canal. Sadly, engineering practicalities and escalating cost estimates meant that a […]

Slicing Scotland in half

In an era when men fought to maintain their honour, few punishments cut as deep as degradation or cashiering. The ritualistic and public disgracing of a soldier was reserved for the most serious crimes. Symbols of office and rank were destroyed – swords broken, batons snapped, uniforms torn and badges and medals ripped off. All of this was performed in front of an audience and to […]

Dishonourable discharge

Does the way you speak give away your background in an instant? Do you pop to the loo or go to the toilet? Do you live in a house or a home? Do you enjoy a sweet or pudding and do you eat it after dinner or tea? In this world of binary class linguistics, you are, quite simply, either upper class or not. So, are […]

Are you U or are you non-U?

England, land of the Angles, could easily have become Daneland. In this counterfactual history, the Viking victory against King Alfred ‘Lossland’ in 878, the ‘year of the battles’, saw the demise of the last Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. All of the Saxon kingdoms had now been swept away – Essex, Middlesex, Sussex and Wessex would never become embedded in the geography of southern England. The strong […]

Daneland

After the wrenching cataclysm of the Second World War, Europe’s war shattered countries faced an uncertain and challenging peace. The most immediate problems that needed urgent solutions were how to feed their hungry populations, where to house millions of refugees and how to demobilise the gargantuan war machines that had rampaged over the continent. Italy faced an additional issue – how to deal with a monarchy […]

The King of May