The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
Let’s face it, the most pervasive and persistent perceptions of history revolve around the stuff that gets talked about. Did Tom Hanks invade Normandy, liberate France, and save Private Ryan? Well, not exactly. But America won the Second World War, right? Well, not...
I clearly remember the time I was cycling through the leafy Veluwe woods, some 50 miles from Amsterdam, when I came across an extraordinary place I never knew existed in all the years I’d been taking family holidays in the area. I never realised it at the time, but...
The Story of Berlin One of the great European cities, even before the fall of the wall Berlin has been unique in Germany. The author of a new history of the city describes its exceptional nature within the wider German state. ‘Berlin is home to such an audacious set...
The Oak Door of Aberffraw In spring 1283 the armies of Edward I stormed into Gwynedd. This was the final drama in a very long war: for 200 years, the princes of Gwynedd had attempted to forge a united Wales in the teeth of resistance from the English crown. They...
The soldier that graces the cover of Immortal Valor, Sergeant Edward A Carter, epitomized the courageous warrior. His look of iron-willed determination was not forged during the battles of the Second World War but from an early age. Little did he know when he returned...
Benson Railton Metcalf Freeman looked every bit the archetypal English officer and gentleman: serious, smartly dressed, complete with the moustache that was so fashionable among RAF officers in the early days of the Second World War. Born in 1903, the son of a Royal...
The Midlands was hotly contested in the English Civil War, and in 1643 it was a region more vital than ever to the Royalists. Boatloads of royal supplies had been shipped, against all odds, from Holland to Bridlington, escaping Parliament’s patrolling navy. Six...
The Yasukuni Shrine is an island of calm in an otherwise bustling city. Mature pines and cypress trees surround it, screening it from Tokyo’s relentless traffic noise. Shady walkways, sacred ponds and dozens of cherry trees make it a haven for those who come here to...
Who ordered the hit on Franz Ferdinand? There are two basic schools of thought about the origins of the plot to assassinate Franz Ferdinand. The first is that it was ordered by Colonel ‘Apis’ Dimitrijevic, the head of Serbian Intelligence, to stop Austro-Hungarian...
What’s Blood Price about? In short, it’s your classic murder mystery story. The sort of tale that is as old as the hills. The difference with this one is that it’s set in the pre-conquest England of King Knut – sometime around the 1020s. The story centres on a young...
