The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
“Soldiers, when I give the command to fire, fire straight at my heart. Wait for the order. It will be my last to you. I have fought a hundred battles for France and not one against her…. Soldiers! Fire!” The oft-quoted last words of Michel Ney, Marshal of France,...
Mythos: Ragnarök presents a unique and highly distinctive theatrical experience, combining Norse mythology with professional wrestling to create something entirely new and original. The production’s mix of mythology, comedy and physicality is unlike anything typically...
The flogging of Queen Boudica and the rape of her daughters after the death of King Prasutagus of the Iceni remains an enigma. As a client kingdom of Rome, the Iceni royal family undoubtedly had Roman citizenship; whipping Boudica and raping her two daughters were...
On 20 November 1945 twenty-one defendants flanked by US guards were brought along the covered walkway from the prison cells, up the stairs, through a door behind the prisoners’ box and into the courtroom. This was the opening day of the Nuremberg Trials, where the...
Changes in social attitudes happen unevenly across society. New ideas are adopted at different rates by different classes, age groups, and professions. So it is that an institution may persist in behaving in ways long considered antiquated by the society of which it...
This novel explores the story of Carausius and Allectus, two Britons who rebelled against Roman rule in the late 3rd century AD. This took Britain out of the Roman Empire for ten years. The narrative combines historical facts with fictional elements to fill gaps in...
The setting of a story is vital for a historical novelist, perhaps even more than for those whose books are set in the present. This is for the blindingly obvious reason that a contemporary novel is set in a place or a milieu, whereas a historical novel has not only a...
At the core of my postwar mystery Devils in Paradise is a secret code, inserted in a rare book stolen by one of America’s former Code Girls. Although I myself have no head for the work, I’ve long been fascinated by the world of code-breaking and especially its unsung...
When Elizabeth I lay dying in March 1603, England held its breath. Later generations would remember the Tudor succession as smooth, almost serene. But that is hindsight. At the time, many feared – and some expected – civil war. Elizabeth had refused to name her...
One of our most cherished and favourite authors, Gordon Corrigan, passed in the last week. Gordon was a soldier, broadcaster, historian and friend. He wrote, on a variety of periods and subjects, with both scholarship and style. He was one of our most popular guests...
