The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
Three aspects of Britain in the world wars stand out. The first was the reluctance with which Britain entered both wars but then the implacable nature in which it fought them. In the First World War Britain was the last of the Great Powers to enter the war; in the...
When Alexander reached the very edge of his vast new empire on the banks of the River Indus, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer. Having visited the British Library’s new exhibition on the great man, he might have saved his tears because the visitor can...
In the last 25 years, as far as I can tell since Quentin Tarantino arrived on the scene with Pulp Fiction, ‘medieval’ has been used as a term of insult – intended to convey a particularly brutal form of behaviour. There are plenty of historians of the Middle Ages who...
In 2005 a dramatic discovery was made in Lancaster, northwest England, of a massive stone bearing the image of a triumphant horseman and his fallen foe. Of itself this is not surprising given that it is known that there were cavalry units based at the nearby Roman...
Alexander the Great in the Dock At The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in London, on 26th October 2022, Alexander the Great stood accused of terrible crimes against humanity, the indictment of which can be found here. I witnessed the televised proceedings as...
The original vision for my Edge of Empire series of novels was to write stories that focussed on the lives and adventures of two protagonists from a single Roman auxiliary infantry unit. It was to be set in the north of the province of Britannia and in the wilder,...
A play within a play. A nod towards music hall theatre. A Wilde evening, with a subtle and suitable amount of smut. The Canterville Ghost is the perfect tonic for cheering up an audience which may be as gloomy as the weather at the moment (especially those who have...
Prior to the Cliveden Literary Festival one of its invited speakers, the great Salman Rushdie, suffered an horrific attack in upstate New York. Fortunately, Rushdie is now in recovery, but the brutal assault was a reminder that there are certain authors who really do...
The Hope Theatre has staged a coup in hosting the first UK production of Jen Silverman's The Moors. The play may be bizarre in places, but it is never dull. Phil Bartlett directs the show with ingenuity and precision. The play toys with certain tropes of 19th century...
At 6.30 pm on 18th August 1823, Jack Gladstone walked up to the large bell that hung at the centre of the sugar plantation, and rang it. This was the signal for the start of the Demerara uprising, that would become the largest revolt against British slavery up to that...
