The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
As we all celebrate Aspects of History Day – I thought I’d reflect on where AoH is after two years. The whole project: magazine, website and podcast has been hugely rewarding. After all, for the four years previously I’d worked in an obscure office at a large American...
The past cannot be told in just one narrative any more than the entire world can be viewed through just one lens pointed at just one angle. In my novels, I seek to present a reality constructed not only of what is remembered of the past, but of what is forgotten – I...
Unionism & The Treaty The Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 led to civil war in Ireland as those for and against descended into bitter conflict. But what of Northern Ireland, established in May 1921? There were plans to include Ulster politicians in an...
Viewing the history of the Ottomans as part and parcel of European history allows us to understand the origins and meaning of concepts and practices such as religious tolerance, secularism, modernity, and even genocide in a different light. We recognise that they...
A faded mural on the streets of Coventry is meant to represent an unbreakable bond between itself and Russia. Volgograd twinned with Coventry in 1944, becoming the first city in the world to pair with a foreign counterpart. The mural was called ‘Volgograd Place’ and...
At some point around AD 155 the Roman fort of Blatobulgium was destroyed. The Roman army when abandoning one of its castra would, as a matter of good military practice and in an orderly manner, demolish the defences in order to deny them to the enemy. However, this...
Books of 2021 from Aspects of HistoryTimothy Ashby Author of Elizabethan Secret AgentAt the top of my favourites list of recent historical books is Leanda de Lisle´s Henrietta Maria. Although non-fiction, the book reads like a historical novel, with fascinating...
As much as any of the characters in the book, Paris has her own story to tell. During WW2, her citizens suffered enormously under German occupation, with food being severely restricted and even the leather for their shoes reserved for German troops so they had to make...
Prince Rupert the Devil In September 1642, a month before the first major battle of the English Civil War, twenty-two-year-old Prince Rupert and his younger brother Maurice arrived at Worcester to escort a convoy of valuables to their uncle the king. The princes were...
How the Redcoat Learnt the Art of War By May 1779, the American Revolutionary War had transformed from a regional civil conflict into a global war, and Britain faced French aggression in the West Indies and India. The British government was forced to redistribute its...
