The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
The passing of time has a strange way in these parts. As the carnyces sound around site, WW2 jeeps swing by, Celts mingle with civil war militia, Neolithic outfits juxtaposed with band members of the much-loved ABBA tribute, you’d be forgiven for a certain amount of...
Roger Moorhouse is a prolific historian specialising in the Nazis and World War Two and his recently published Wolfpack: Inside Hitler’s U-Boat War is a corrective to the common perception that U-Boats were terrifying and effective silent killers from the deep. The...
Chalke goers are a stoic breed and the 40 degree heat (and humidity) did not put a dampener on the day. Top of the billing was America 250: The Continuing Revolution: What Next for American Democracy with luminaries including Anne Applebaum (Gulag, Iron Curtain) and...
In this compelling narrative study of the rise and fall of Sparta, Birmingham University professor, Andrew Bayliss, seeks to strip away the myth of the Spartans, peer behind the lens of unreliable ancient historians, and get to the heart of what this extraordinary...
Sword: D-Day - Trial by Battle, by Max Hastings A new work by Max Hastings, éminence grise of military historians, is always an eagerly anticipated event. In recent years we have been treated to his brilliant accounts of Vietnam, the Dambusters raid (Chastise),...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
