The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
CHF 2025: Day 4 ENGLAND'S WARRIOR KINGS, Dan Jones and Helen Carr Dan Jones is tattooed geezer with a laddish sense of humour, Helen Carr is the brilliant granddaughter of EH Carr (What is History?) and superb guide to the 14 Century. Her first book, John of Gaunt,...
Chalke Hist Fest 3 - Wednesday I woke up to the sight of an earwig flaunting its acrobatic manoeuvres inside the seam of the canvas above. Not quite panic as I flicked it out the tent door, but it got me moving. An earlier start was necessary because this was the...
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 &...
Epic tales: the surprising search for identity and origins in Virgil and Dante At times of trouble and transition, communities will often find a story that brings them together. From the Iliad to the Shahnahmeh, from ʿAntar to Beowulf, epic tales take familiar ideas...
Trojan Barbie - Review Christine Evans’ war torn Troy is a far cry from the pink utopia of Barbieland. Based on Euripides’ tragedy The Trojan Women, the play explores the impact of war on the women left behind. Set simultaneously in the past and present, Trojan Barbie...
Epic Poetry: Robin Lane Fox Interview Readers may be familiar with Robin Lane Fox from his masterful biography of Alexander which was a bestseller when published in 1973 when he was only 27 – an Alexandrian achievement. An Oxford don, he has written works on antiquity...
