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The Friday Digest 17/01/14

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THP Friday digest 
 

This week's update features love letters from the trenches, fashion laws and fasting.


The First Battalion South Wales Borderers went to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force in 1914 (c) National Archives 1st June VERQUIN – Orders received that we were to move into BETHUNE. 24 LONDON REGT relieve us at 9:30pm. Easy march into BETHUNE and are billeted. Billets rather divided and special precaution taken in case BETHUNE was heavily shelled. A few shells are dropped into the town most days, but very little damage has been done.


* A number of First World War unit diaries were placed online by the National Archives this week. The documents detail day-to-day activities on the frontline as well as details of battle engagements

 

War graves. From top right: Marc, Francis Ledwidge, Edith Cavell. Will Gladstone, Harold Chapin.

 

* For the next four years, people will be looking back at those who were killed but can we ever really know 'the lost generation'?


Schoolchildren on a visit to the Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth war grave cemetery in the world, near Ypres, Belguim. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

 

* Teaching the First World War: what do Europe's pupils learn about the conflict? 


A letter from Marjorie to her father Gunner Wilfrid Cove (Liddle Collection, Leeds University Library)

 

* A new book has gathered together love letters and other correspondence to and from soldiers fighting in the First World War and they are heart-wrenching. 


The front line between the Allied forces and those of the Central Powers as seen from Punta Linke, 1918. Photo: Museo della Grande Guerra, Peio


* Melting glaciers in Peio,a small alpine ski resort in northern Italy, have revealed the corpses of First World War soldiers that have been preserved for a century.  


German soldiers in a railroad car on the way to the front during early World War I


History Today discuss the complex origins of the First World War


The new design featuring Lord Kitchener's Call to Arms on one of the commemorative £2 coins


* Should Lord Kitchener's image be used on the new £2 coin? 


Forest grave (c) BBC Image from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25589709

 

* Approximately 26 million people died on the Eastern Front and up to 4 million are still officially considered missing in action, but a team of volunteers have taken up the search for their bodies

 

Jane Austen's signature on her will, 11 September 1817 (catalogue reference: PROB 1/78)

 

 * As a stock of famous writers' wills are posted online, we can be glad of the insights they give us into their authors.

 

Queen Victoria and servant John Brown at Balmoral. Picture: Getty


* According to official papers published after almost 150 years, armed insurrectionists plotted to kidnap Queen Victoria while she was in residence in Balmoral

 

From Rumi to Mary Oliver, artist Lisa Congdon has the perfect quote for your day.

* Twenty beautifully illustrated quotes from some of your favourite authors


A steam train running on the railway. The Great Central Railway has featured in television shows and films including Buster, Shadowlands, The Hours and Cemetery Junction

 

Work to build a £1 million rail link between two heritage railway lines used as film sets has begun this week in Loughborough. 


Richard III


* A Journal of English Renaissance Studies discusses the art of recovering Richard III.

 

Hever Castle

 

Historical Honey share their top ten British castles, but which ones would you add to the list?


 

* A map showing British County flags, but which is your favourite?

 

hardcover-books. Image from http://catherineryanhoward.com/2013/10/17/proofreading-explained/


* Proofreading and copy-editing explained...


Postcard of Varosha in its heyday

 

* Varosha: the Mediterranean tourist resort that has been abandoned for forty years.


A police picture of Alfred Rouse

 

* Scientists investigating a murder mystery dating back more than eighty years have made a breakthrough that could finally identify the victim.


A monk is told off for breaking his fast


* Diets and fasts have now become de rigeur but some religious organisations have been fasting for years: here is a monk's guide to fasting.

 

Clothes

 

* The secret history of fashion laws.


Edith Garrud in action


* A guide to suffragette style by Lucy Adlington


Ian McCaskill, 1978


* The BBC is celebrating sixty years of the British TV weather forecast. The weather may get a gloomy reception from most Brits but the weather presenters were much more warmly received.


The wreck of The Sunbeam at Rossbeigh Strand in Co. Kerry which had been embedded in the sand for 111 years but this week’s storm propelled the 84-tonne wreck  about half a kilometre away. Photograph: Don MacMonagle


* It is hard to see many upsides to the horrible storms we have been having recently, but the discovery of this wreck of The Sunbeam at Rossbeigh Strand in Co. Kerry which had been embedded in the sand for 111 years is something to celebrate. 


London


Historical Honey share an 'off the beaten track' guide to London.

 

 * James Beardon takes a look at London during the Second World War.

 

Book shelf. Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/39136843@N05/3709418364/


* Be more than a reader: how to support your favourite authors.

* The decline and fall of the book reviewing empire.

* We Love This Book share the best books of 2014.

*  Publishing Perspectives share some thoughts on digital publishing in 2014

* The future of the book (part 654).   

Big Brother is watching you e-read Mein Kampf 

* Scientists have found the secret to writing a bestselling novel. The secret? Avoid cliches and excessive usage of verbs...

 * The bulletproof bookcase that can save lives

* Rachel Cooke asks how can we make sense of the world without reading stories?  

* Dear diary, how did you become part of our literary culture?

 

 Which history and publishing stories have you enjoyed reading this week?


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