The Windermere Children (BBC 2, 27 January, 2020) follows the true story of a group of children, recently freed from concentration camps who, in 1945, were brought to Windermere for four months of rehabilitation under the auspices of child psychologist Oscar Friedmann (Thomas Kretschmann) and philanthropist Leonard Montefiore (Tim McInnerny). Made to be transmitted on […]
Reviews
Looking for your next read? HWA members review the best new historical writing, recommend their desert island books and revisit some old favourites.
Unforgettable legacies of the East India Company
Historian William Dalrymple’s profile is high at the moment, with an acclaimed book about the East India Company published recently and an exhibition he curated opening this month. We’re delighted that Vayu Naidu has interviewed him for Historia and writes here about Dalrymple’s wide vision, as shown by his writing and his selection of paintings. […]
Reviews: Entertaining Mr Pepys by Deborah Swift
Entertaining Mr Pepys is Deborah Swift‘s third book based on the women in the famous Diary. It caused a slight dilemma in the Historia diary; two reviews of it arrived within 24 hours. So, in a one-off event, we’re publishing both. The first is by Jean Briggs and the second by Tom Williams. Jean Briggs […]
Eat, drink, and be merry the Pompeian way
Historian Lindsay Powell reports on an exhibition in Oxford which shows, through images and objects from Pompeii, the variety of the Roman diet and the places associated with its preparation and consumption, from filthy kitchens to elaborate banquets. “Vivamus, moriendum est” – “let us live, for we must die” – the effusive Vibius Gallus is recorded […]
Review: A Ration Book Childhood by Jean Fullerton
When author Nicola Cornick agreed to review Jean Fullerton’s latest novel, A Ration Book Childhood, she had no idea that her first taste of these World War II East End books would end up with her paying it the ultimate compliment… buying the rest of the series. A Ration Book Childhood is a richly-textured and […]
TV review: The Crown, season 3
The timing couldn’t be better. The Crown(season 3)returns to TV screens in a week when the Royal Family is back in the headlines and the role of its members is once again being questioned. And with Olivia Colman in the title role, playing a very different kind of queen from the one she gave us […]
Review: The Name of the Rose: TV series
John Turturro’s TV adaptation of The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco’s dark murder mystery set in a Benedictine abbey in 14th-century Italy, began screening on BBC2 in October, 2019. Author Jean Goodhind has read the book and seen the film; how will this version compare? The moment I saw this in my TV schedule […]
Review: Downton Abbey: the film
Does Downton Abbey work as a film? Should you take your non-DA-addict friend or partner to see it? Will there be posh frocks and implausible plots? These and many other important questions are answered in LJ Trafford’s Historia review. The world is neatly divided into those who have never seen Downton Abbey and those who […]