Sir Ernest Shackleton: “What the ice gets, the ice keeps”

  “For scientific discovery give me Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel give me Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.”                                                    —Antarctic explorer Sir Raymond Priestly For those new to Shackleton, it might seem counterintuitive to celebrate the leader of a failed…

The Talbot Dog

The origins of the Talbot dog breed are shrouded in mystery. ‘Talbot’ was one of many names which we know were given to individual dogs – the equivalent of ‘Rover’ or ‘Bonzo’. What is less clear is when exactly the Talbot dog breed emerged, It appears the Talbots were short-legged, usually white coated and of…

Death and the Gallant

Many years ago I lived in Cowbridge in Glamorgan and one of my daughters was christened in Holy Cross Church. About twenty years later I joined the Richard III Society and discovered that Holy Cross had a connection to Richard III. The following is taken from History Points.org:Holy Cross Church was probably built around 1254…

Stanley, The Man Who Wasn’t There….

    Appropriately titled The Man Who Wasn’t There, there is a new book about Sir Thomas Stanley, aka 1st Earl of Derby. Hmm, not my favourite person, so I doubt I’ll be rushing to acquire it. That’s no reflection on the author or the quality of the book, just the subject matter. You can…

Athelstan–Our Greatest Monarch?

A recent poll searching for Britain’s ‘Greatest Monarch’, came up with the surprise winner of… drum roll, King Athelstan. Not that the Anglo-Saxon king wasn’t so great, but the winner is a little surprising since most people seem to have believed the ‘crown’ would go to Elizabeth I. (Yawn!) I hope the voters actually remembered…

A mysterious book by Anonymous….

Right, there I was on a hot July afternoon, hunched over my laptop searching Amazon for anything that might apply to “Duke of Ireland”. I was becoming desperate, and had already searched every word combination that came to mind. And what turns up? A mystery book entitled The Queen’s Progress , written by the author…

The perils of obtaining books….

  Here at this link is the ultimate tease for this already whining, snivelling book-seeker who has been buying books all over recently and whose purse is becoming sadly threadbare. And whose house is running out of space for accommodating my endless lust for more books! This particular volume is expensive (natch, all the books I…

Professor Turi King has written a new book about DNA….

  “….Transworld has landed a ‘myth-busting’ book about DNA by Professor Turi King, best known for her work identifying Richard III from the remains discovered under a Leicester city car park….” If publishers are snapping up this book, titled DNA: Why Genetics Matters, (thankyou a commenter below for finding the title) which is due out…

From soft cushions to the tetchiness of the Black Prince….

I’m still quite bemused by the things Amazon turns up on what seems (to me) to be a fairly straightforward search. On this occasion I entered “Continuatio Eulogii Given Wilson” Well, the book DID turn up first, as you can see above, but immediately after it there was a fun cushion! Huh? Clearly they want…

Gawain and the Green Knight, Hollywood style….

Gawain and the Green Knight has been given “the Hollywood treatment”! See this article. You can also read about the film here and here  It’s directed by David Lowery and stars Dev Patel and Alicia Vikander. Well, having now seen it, I fear that if the anonymous author had too, he’d be taking serious steps…