‘We’re going back … back to Small Heath,’ says a blood-spattered Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy), in the opening episode of Peaky Blinders, Season 4. ‘Back where you belong,’ replies Johnny Dogs (Packy Lee) – he knows, as do we, that Tommy can’t escape his roots. Season 3 of Peaky Blinders was about Tommy’s attempt to […]
Review: Gunpowder
Gunpowder (Episode 1/3, BBC One, 21/10/2017) follows the motivation and execution of an act of terrorism. I am aware that the use of that word is both anachronistic and subject to technical objections so I will clarify by saying that it is an example of violent action by individuals against executives of the state. We […]
Pleasing Mr Pepys by Deborah Swift
Deb Willet, companion to Elizabeth, the wife of Samuel Pepys, takes centre stage in this intriguing tale of love, espionage and murder in Restoration London. Deb takes the position in Pepys’ household in order to escape from the tyranny of sour-faced Aunt Beth. Deb’s father is in Ireland about his business affairs; her mother deserted […]
Review: Victoria and Abdul
Victoria and Abdul (dir: Stephen Frears) is the latest example of an established genre of films which has developed the trick of holding up a mirror to the British as a people, seeing a certain amount of ugliness but then managing to come up smelling of roses. The ugliness we see is usually something along […]
The Reformation: The John Rylands Library
Historia editor Katherine Clements visits the new exhibition marking the 500th anniversary of The Reformation at The John Rylands Library, Manchester. “So, what exactly is the Reformation?” asks one of my fellow journalists at the press preview of John Rylands Library’s new exhibition. There’s a pause from our guide that suggests this is not a new question. Then […]
A Column of Fire by Ken Follett
“What a life that man had led: first a farmer in West Africa, then a soldier, then a prisoner of war, a slave in Seville, a soldier again in the Netherlands and at last a rich Antwerp iron maker.” An epic sweep of a life in an epic sweep of a book. Ken Follett’s A […]
The Woman in the Shadows by Carol Mcgrath
Carol McGrath has left the 11th century to add yet another book to the already crowded shelves of Tudor novels. As somebody who writes about the 19th-century, I have always struggled with the wild enthusiasm that people seem to feel for books about the Tudors, but The Woman in the Shadows has brought the period alive for […]
Workhouse Orphans by Holly Green
Workhouse Orphans is a fascinating and richly detailed book focusing on the poor of Victorian Liverpool and the world they live in. In mid-Victorian Liverpool, two young children, May Lavender and her brother Gus are orphaned by the death of their mother. They are sent to the Workhouse, a cruel, cold place, where they are […]