The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
CHF 2025: Day 3 FROM UTMOST EAST TO UTMOST WEST: CONQUEST OF THE BLUE NILE, John Blashford-Snell JBS, as he is known, is up there with Rannulph Fiennes as a proper adventurer. King Charles is a fan and encouraged him to set up Operation Raleigh, a charity sending...
Chalke Hist Fest - Tuesday This is Solstice-Land in June after all and so waking up at 5am because of the light is to be expected. A couple of hours dozing as the lightest of rain tapped at the canvas above and I emerge for a remarkably warm shower. Having gone to...
CHF 2025: Day 2 THERE AND BACK: DIARIES 1999-2009 Michael Palin moderated by Michael Neiberg Michael Palin is a national treasure, and he entertained a packed Guildhall tent to recollections from a life of adventure. He was keen to point out the difference between...
Chalke Hist Fest - Monday Driving through Fovant and past the Badges, we were all set for a sunny if gusty day. The roads seemed unusually busy for mid-afternoon in the Wiltshire villages. Quickly setting up tent on the flat top of the chalk down, the immaculate PVC...
CHF 2025: Day 1 Whoever gets first billing at Chalke sets the tone for the week-long festival. Last year it was Giles Milton and Stalin (Russia must have been top of mind in 2024 for some reason!). This year it was the English Civil War. In REVOLUTION &...
The Essex Rebellion: Who Tells the Story In August 1999 Cornwall experienced a total eclipse of the sun on a cloudy day. Positioned along the south coast, BBC and other journalists reported the national disappointment. Locals and tourists on the north coast had a...
Josie Dale-Jones is a force to be reckoned with as she takes to Shoreditch Town Hall for her show, A Little Inquest Into What We Are All Doing Here. The show is an exploration of topics such as censorship, free speech, artistic freedom, and cancel culture. In 2022,...
Europe’s Old Towns, the historic quarters at the heart of cities across the continent, tell stories about European history that date back to the Middle Ages. Some are epic narratives; some are fairy-tale fantasies. But some of the most powerful stories they tell are...
I first came across the name Habbaniya as a 14-year-old schoolboy. I can remember surreptitiously leafing through the pages of a tattered, hard-cover diary inscribed 'India - Iraq 1939-42'. My father’s handwriting was barely decipherable, but the entry headlined...
Although we may be the new publishers on the block,there are two questions that we are most frequently asked. What type of books are you looking for? And what type of author are you looking for? This blog aims to answer those questions. The short answer to the first...
