The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
CHF 2025: Day 5 UKRAINE: THE LATEST LIVE – WITH NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER OLEKSANDRA MATVIICHUK, Oleksandra Matviichuk w. Francis Dearnley, Dominic Nicholls and Adelie Pojzman-Pontay The incredible team behind The Telegraph’s award-winning podcast were on stage to...
Chalke Hist Fest 4 - Thursday It’s all become routine now – more or less six years without having camped and I’ve surprised myself by enjoying it! The warm showers and the Kiwi coffee van twenty metres away lures me out in the morning, a couple of protein ‘crisps’ and...
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 &...
On 29 September 1923, the Palestine Mandate became law and the British Empire reached what would prove to be its maximum territorial extent. It was now the largest empire in history, covering a quarter of the world’s land area and home to 460 million people. This was...
