History

In an article called the English Aristocracy, Nancy Mitford declared that: “the English aristocracy may seem to be on the verge of decadence, but it is the only real aristocracy left in the world today”. She went on to say: “in England the Queen is the fountain of honours and when she bestows a peerage upon a subject she bestows something real and unique”. This is […]

Peering into the peerage

At just over thirty miles, the railway between Liverpool and Manchester covered a relatively short distance. But, as the world’s first twin tracked and timetabled passenger railway it signalled the start of the railway age and ushered in the modern age. . At the start of the nineteenth centuries Liverpool and Manchester were fizzing with capitalist energy. Liverpool was well into its ascent as a great […]

Thirty miles to the future

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

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

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

How many were killed on the first few days of the Allied invasion of Japan? Tens of thousands of bodies lay mangled on the blood soaked beaches. The sea churned, frothing pink-tinged waves pounding the sticky, red sand. Memories of the D-Day landings were eclipsed by this new slaughter, the desperate defence producing a suicidal savagery that surprised leaders on all sides. Waves of devoted but […]

The Downfall that never was

The arrival of the railway heralded a new age more than almost any other technological development. But the idea of combining fixed paths with wheeled vehicles was much older than the great nineteenth century inventors and the age of steam. Christopher Woolmer opens his book Fire and Steam, a history of the railways, with this quite arresting story: “One of the least known facts about Louis XIV […]

Ahead of their time

There are far more famous painters, celebrated sculptors and renowned architects than Grinling Gibbons. He is not as well known as Turner, Moore or Wren. But few craftsmen or artists have so completely mastered their medium as Gibbons.  Along two sides of the Victoria and Albert Museum are 32 statues representing a pantheon of British artistic greats, master craftsmen and visionary architects. The figures are labelled […]

No instance of a man before Gibbons

It was to be an engineering feat to surpass the Pyramids and be a wonder for all ages. The sea would be tamed, harnessed to produce abundant electricity and lowered to create vast new fertile plains. Europe would be linked to Africa, fresh water would make the desert bloom and there would be almost unlimited living space for a new generation of European pioneers. Atlantropa would […]

Draining the Mediterranean

It is now over four years since the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers heralded the credit crunch and the start of the one of the deepest global recessions in history. We are well versed in warning stores of booms, busts and bubbles. The South Sea Bubble and the Wall Street Crash are well known examples of speculative bubbles bursting with catastrophic effect. Less well known, but similarly […]

An asylum of railway lunatics