20th Century
A History of Pop Music Albums – 1993
A History of Pop Music Albums – 1993 Featured Album: R.E.M – Automatic For The People This is a series of articles looking at albums from 1960 to 1999. Just cannot go on that much [more…]
History
20th Century
The Windsors & Jimmy Donahue
The story of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor is one of the most romantic of all time: Edward VIII abdicated his throne and gave up an empire so that he could marry the woman [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Romania – Part Three
Part Two of the Postcard from Romania saw me waxing rhapsodic about the Museum of Pharmacy at the Mauksch-Hintz House in Cluj. After a fantastic visit, when we spent hours marvelling at the extraordinary collections, [more…]
19th Century
Codswallop
Codswallop! This article is about a type of Victorian bottle invented by Hiram Codd, a British bottle inventor. Invention of the ‘Codd’ Bottle. Hiram Codd worked for the British and Foreign Cork Company and during [more…]
20th Century
Somewhere West of Laramie
It was an evening in June 1923, and a Union Pacific train – “The Overland Limited” – was working its way west across the wilds of Wyoming. Onboard was Ned Jordon, president of the Jordan [more…]
Arts
Wolf Country: A Spiritual History of Iran
Introduction Paropamisidae, Arachosia, Gedrosia, Hyrcania…what strangely mellifluous names were given to the provinces of the Persian Empire conquered by Alexander, whose name became synonymous with evil in the Iranian mind. Hyrcania had echoes even in [more…]
20th Century
A History of Pop Music Albums – 1992
A History of Pop Music Albums – 1992 Featured Album: Annie Lennox – Diva This is a series of articles looking at albums from 1960 to whatever year we end up in. I will select [more…]
20th Century
The Desert War – May 1941
An even busier month than April, lots going on in North Africa, Crete and Abyssinia. The Germans and Italians continued to besiege Tobruk, German paratroops invaded Crete and yet more parts of Abyssinia fell to [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Romania – Part Two
Part One of the Postcard from Romania covered our arrival in the beautiful city of Cluj-Napoca, in May of 2018. In writing it, I tried to dispel just a little of the negative impression many [more…]