History

The spring and summer months are starting to look quite lively. My next (quarterly) u3a national talk by Zoom is booked in for Tuesday 21 April at 2pm on the fascinating Anglo-Saxon period From the Dark Ages to the Viking Age. That will be sandwiched between a couple of trips abroad to new places for […]

After very positive feedback from earlier talks, on 15th January I’ll be giving my next u3a national talk by Zoom. This will follow the Roman ‘colonisation’ of Britain through to the next period, sometimes called ‘the Dark Ages’. I’ll unpick what we know happened, when, how, and possibly why. Whatever else, the immediate post-Roman period

In Ice to Athelstan I mention the ancient hill fort at Crickley Hill in Gloucestershire as the site of an 4th millennium BCE massacre of the local tribe who had settled there. Having now visited the site, perched on the spur of a long ridge on the scarp slope of the Cotswolds near Birdlip, with

The picture shows a section of a magnificent life-size representation of King Athelstan created by award-winning contemporary embroiderer, Jacky Puzey, for Kingston-upon-Thames. This is part of the ‘Seven Kings’ set of vividly embroidered panels, inspired by this year being the 1100th anniversary of the crowning of King Athelstan there in in 925, with Kingston also

This was the scene at Thame Library on a warm spring day for an informal talk – and perhaps the beginnings of a history discussion group!  It’s another experience talking to a small group without PowerPoint, as I also did at the local Cuttlebrook Hall, encouraging some interesting exchanges with the audience. The next couple

Now, more than ever, we can see the mistakes of the past being repeated by those who don’t know any better. So it’s good to see faint signs of history becoming more important in education. Here I am, for example, talking about my book to a full Assembly of some 80 children aged roughly 9

Hazel’s birthday this month gave us a good excuse to re-visit Bruges for a nice change of scenery, even if we did get snow! In addition to our normal long walks round the inner city (and some bars of course) the cold gave us reason to visit some galleries and displays, such as the amazing

On the cover page of my book Ice to Athelstan, a small crown sits above the ‘A’ of Athelstan. This is picked  up in the strapline at the foot of the page, which refers to Athelstan as ‘England’s first Crowned King.’  This raises at least three questions: what makes a king; did England exist at

Loki, shown here in Kelly’s photo, is now 18 in human years. She is thus very much my senior in cat years, and in this post she represents the animal kingdom going back to one of the earliest comments on my book when my friend Richard said: ‘I read the first few chapters of your

The book is now out – and five of these six sold yesterday!  Some events coming up in Thame and surrounds with details to follow.