The success of crime dramas like The Killing and Borgen has brought Scandinavian TV to an international audience. Defined by dark subject matter, bleak, beautifully shot landscapes and slow paced stories, Nordic noir has become a genre that’s a hit with viewers and critics alike. And now Danish history has been given the same treatment. […]
Our History
I once asked a group of twelve friends if anyone could put Richard II, Henry II and Edward II in chronological order. I’m sad to report only two managed it and one of those admitted it was a lucky guess. There ensued a discussion about history. Some said they hated it at school while other […]
The Battle That Changed Britain
On 26 February, 1815, Napoleon, exiled after his defeat by the Allied powers, took ship from Elba. His flotilla of half-a-dozen small vessels was led by the 300-ton 16-gun Inconstant, painted to resemble an English ship. He slipped away while his British jailer, Col Sir Neil Campbell had taken a few days leave to socialise […]
The Private Life of a Regency Poppet
“As for what the women really thought, we must try The Journal of Clarissa Trant (1800-1832), edited by her granddaughter C.G.Luard and published by The Bodley Head in 1925 …. Clarissa Trant is a poppet, both in speech and appearance. She is neither a prude nor too coy, and sparkles on for more than three […]
The Rebels Who Never Were
It’s often forgotten that the word ‘thug’ once had a very specific meaning — one so thrillingly and gothically nasty, that it was the reason it entered English in the first place. The Thugs were Indian roadside bandits from what is now Madhya Pradesh in central India, who befriended unwary travellers only to turn on […]