The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
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...
Books of 2023 from Aspects of HistoryAlan Bardos Author of The Dardanelles ConspiracyIt’s been a great year for fiction and non-fiction, but these books are my first amongst equals. Every Spy a Traitor by Alex Gerlis follows Agent Archie, a Russian mole in MI6 across...
The first thing that strikes you about KAOS is its audacious tone. Writer Charlie Covell, known for their work on The End of the F**ing World*, infuses the series with a sharp wit and a modern sensibility. The standout performances come from the gods themselves. Janet...
CHF 2024: Day 5 Cassino ’44, James Holland The searing sun gave way to cooler cloudier weather on Friday, the day of the military big beasts, James Holland, Max Hastings, Saul David and Anthony Beevor. James Holland’s account of the battle of Monte Cassino follows in...
CHF 2024: Day 4 Ukraine: Rhetoric & Reality: Francis Dearnley, David Knowles, Hanna Shelest, Dominic Nicholls The formidable team from the Telegraph’s Ukraine podcast attracted one of the biggest turnouts as they tackled the gap between rhetoric and reality in the...
CHF 2024: Day 3 The Chalk Stream, Feargal Sharkey Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey gave what might have been the most anticipated talk of the festival, telling the story of how England’s unique chalk streams are dying because of negligence by the privatised water...
