The early 1800s saw a massive global endeavour to circumnavigate the world. Naval technology was improving and every successful expedition improved cartography and in many cases opened up new trade routes. The British Admiralty was especially interested in discovering a potential passage over and around Northern Canada that would expand trade routes to Asia. To… Read More The History Behind: The Terror
The coronation of King Charles III approacheth. The event is being hailed as a once-in-a-lifetime event given that it’s been seventy years since the last one, but we should remember that as the longest-reigning British monarch Elizabeth II’s reign is the exception rather than the rule. Her coronation in 1953 was in fact the fifth… Read More Breaking Down Pomp and Circumstance II: The Coronation
The Wonder (2022) is a period drama set in Ireland, 1862 in a community recovering from the Great Famine. Based on the book of the same name by Emma Donoghue, the film follows English nurse, Elizabeth Wright, as she is instructed to closely watch over Anna O’Donnell, a young girl who hasn’t eaten since her… Read More The History Behind: The Wonder (2022)
For the weeks following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain was on show. There followed two weeks of ceremony, tradition, and queuing which drew the attention of the world. Ceremony is what the monarchy does best. Its entire existence is predicated on traditions and splendour that date back centuries specifically with the goal of… Read More The Queen’s Funeral: Breaking down Pomp and Circumstance
The death of Queen Elizabeth II on 8th September 2022 has prompted numerous changes among the Royal Family, big and small. Prince Charles and his wife are now King Charles III and Queen Camilla. Angela Kelly, one of the queen’s closest confidantes and responsible for the queen’s iconic sense of style, will now perform her… Read More The History of the Prince of Wales; or, Why a Growing Number of Welsh people don’t want one
Queen Elizabeth II, like her predecessor, did not pass her childhood in any certain expectation of the Crown. But already we know her well, and we understand why her gifts, and those of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, have stirred the only part of the Commonwealth she has yet been able to visit. She… Read More The Queen is Dead, Long Live the King: What happens next?
In June 1941 five of Queen Elizabeth II’s cousins, Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon, and Idonea, Etheldreda, and Rosemary Fane were committed to The Royal Earlswood Institution for Mental Defectives. It had been renamed some years earlier from The Asylum for Idiots but both names give you some idea as to the colour of the place.… Read More The Queen’s Hidden Cousins
The balcony of Buckingham Palace has been the focal point of royal appearances for a hundred and seventy years, seventy of which belong solely to Queen Elizabeth After the Trooping of the Colour, she once again took to the balcony as she celebrates her platinum jubilee. She is now the only British monarch to have… Read More Who’s Who on the Balcony
This blog exists, in part, due to David Starkey. Young me was studying at a time when Starkey was considered the absolute authority on Tudor history. He’d written a definitive study of Elizabeth I and had yet to call Catherine Howard a ‘silly little slut’. This week, he appeared on GB News (no comment) for… Read More David Starkey, Aberfan, and Acts of God: A Rebuttal
The second act of Fallout 4, one of Bethesda’s most popular RPGs, is heralded by the arrival of the Brotherhood of Steel. The Brotherhood of Steel are a recurring faction who seek and preserve technology in the aftermath of nuclear war. They’re the technological hoarders of the wasteland that is America, which means while the… Read More Fallout 4, The Prydwen, and Arthurian Legend