The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
It is estimated that one in six people in England have Huguenot ancestry. Yet the Huguenots (Protestants who were largely artisans and professionals) integrated so seamlessly into their adopted countries that, generations on, it is easy to forget the circumstances...
As we are being reminded by the public enquiry into the pandemic, that period in recent history was a nightmare for many. But for some of us lockdown provided the time and peace to write. In this case the subject is the decade beginning 2010: a period which included...
I first came across the story of Frank Foley while researching a book on British intelligence. One of the former MI6 officers I met told me about a wartime British spy whose skills as a agent handler were so good that they were still held up as an example to new spies...
The so-called Special Relationship with America is frequently dismissed by both politicians and the media as a myth, even a joke. Yet the basic truth is that Britain and America are bound together more closely than either is to any other ally, with the two countries...
On 1st January 1645, Captain John Hotham, having played loose with his loyalties in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, faced his end at the Tower of London. His proposal to pay Parliament £10,000 to commute his sentence to banishment had been declined, therefore...
Afghanistan and the IED Threat In October 2001 the United States led a coalition of nations into Afghanistan with the aim of overthrowing the repressive Taliban regime. The coalition forces advanced rapidly, Taliban forces were simply unable to withstand the onslaught...
On 22nd August 1485 two armies assembled near Market Bosworth to contest the throne of England. One was vast and the other tiny, yet the ensuing battle provided one of the greatest upsets in English history. Once the fighting started at Bosworth, the outcome was in...
CVHF 2023: Day 3 The V-Bombers - Norman Bonner & Ed Jarron with James Holland Britain And The Nuclear Threat - Julie McDowall The Pacific War 1941-45 - Saul David & Michael Neiberg The Wolf-Girl, The Greeks And The Gods: A Tale Of The Persian Wars - Tom...
CVHF 2023: Day 2 The Blazing World: A New History Of Revolutionary England - Jonathan Healey Revolutionary Spring: Fighting For A New World 1848 – 1849 - Christopher Clark With Tom Holland Living In The Third Reich - Julia Boyd & Martin Davidson Middling sorts...
CVHF 2023: Day 1 Ashes Heroes - Mike Brearley, Gideon Haigh, Simon Hughes The Ship beneath the Ice, The Discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance – Mensun Bound How to Be: Life Lessons from the Early Greeks – Adam Nicolson Bazball This year’s opener was a crowd-pleaser, the...
