The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
When visiting the Royal Tombs of the Argead dynasty at Aigai, Vergina in northern Greece, one descends a slight declining ramp, in bright sunlight with multi-coloured oleander on either side, towards a doorway at the end that is cloaked in darkness. On entering the...
Britain's Destiny The Greek historian Thucydides called his account of the 5th century BC war between Athens and Sparta was ‘a possession for all time’, because ‘the past is an aid to understanding the future.’ Cicero, writing nearly four centuries later, agreed that...
Medea @Soho Place - Review Euripides' Medea is one of the more affecting tragedies emanating from 5th century Athens. For those unfamiliar, it's a sequel to Jason and the Argonauts - but if you're thinking it's in the style of the Hollywood version with Todd Armstrong...
The Bin Laden Papers, by Nelly Lahoud Some years ago a wise Saudi friend implored me to read Amin Malouf’s brilliant The Crusades Through Arab Eyes. Malouf’s use of primary Arab sources cast a corrective and insightful gaze on the Arab defenders, a classic piece of...
I write a series about a Scotland Yard detective, DCI Frank Merlin operating in World War Two London. To date there are five books in the series with the fifth, Dead In The Water, coming out this month from Headline. My aim has always been to set the series against a...
With All Quiet on the Western Front having won the BAFTA for best film, it got me thinking as to my top 10 of war films. Now my lists are always subject to change depending on my mood, and whilst I enjoyed AQotWF, it hasn't made the list. Nor have other recent movies...
It is a tall order, to say the least to analyse the pace and extent of change in London during the entire period of Roman influence; but Dominic Perring has managed to produce a convincing narrative of London’s development. His book charts the political and economic...
The word unprecedented has been used a lot lately. During the Covid-19 lockdown last year, my teenage daughter baulked every time a journalist, news anchor, pundit, or politician used that particular adjective. When talking about the period of history following the...
Ho Chi Minh & the Vietnam War I never imagined for one minute that my previous works on Third Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment during World War II would lead to something quite like Sign Here For Sacrifice. However, the synergy between the battalion’s...
Thomas Harding White Debt focuses on the vital case of the Demerara Uprising in 1823, Guyana, which has been largely underrepresented in historiography. Told from the viewpoint of four very different, but essential protagonists in the Demerara Uprising, Harding’s...
