The Friday Digest 05/12/14

This week's update features advice on how to be decorative whilst ice-skating, art mysteries and assassinations.

* Robert Grosseteste: the medieval bishop who helped to unweave the rainbow.

* Everything you need to know about England's 'hidden medieval city'. 

* Analysis of DNA from Richard III has thrown up a surprise: evidence of infidelity in his family tree.

 

* Archaeologists have found bullets and shells at 'enigma' Western Front practice trenches used by First World War soldiers in Cumbria. 

* Scarred by war: battlefield landscapes from the First World War, 100 years on. 

 

* Sainsbury’s Christmas truce advert ‘confuses understanding’ of the First World War according to historian and First World War expert Professor Mark Connelly, but what are your thoughts on the advert?

 * How to be decorative while ice-skating: advice from 1917.

* The oldest example of chicken domestication to date has been found in northern China. 

* A prehistoric reed basket was revealed on the Scottish island of North Uist after recent storms. The basket, about half a metre in length, contains a handful of worked quartz stones, and a handful of diverse animal bones.

* The first scientific evidence of frankincense being used in Roman burial rites in Britain has been uncovered by a team of archaeological scientists led by the University of Bradford. 

 

* Is J.B. Priestley to blame for the 'grim up north' stereotype? 

 

* More than thirty photographs of movie star Marilyn Monroe have sold for about £25,000 at auction.

 

 

* The history of Bath's famous waters, Prior Park and the 'genius' of Ralph Allen. 

 

* How Stuart Little cracked a nine decades old art mystery.

 

* The Tjipetir mystery: why are rubber-like blocks washing up on European beaches?

* The game whose eerie allure will never be put to rest ...

* At a time of international conflict two centuries ago, did Britain assassinate an enemy agent while the world was looking the other way?

* A look at the 'bad words' of ancient languages.

* Tudors at sea: eight ways to survive a voyage.

 

* Just who were the Seven Sisters?

 

* A history of tobacco in London.

 

* A centre of gravity: how eighteenth century Londoners measured the renowned force. 

* Fifteen iconic ballet photos from history. 

 

* The strange case of Robert Louis Stevenson. 

 

* Was the sitter for the Mona Lisa a Chinese slave?  

* Patron Saint of Prostitutes: the extraordinary Josephine Butler.

* More than 1 million vinyl records have been sold in the UK so far this year – the first time the milestone has been achieved since 1996.

* These haunting photographs of the first AIDS hospice centre tell a story of struggle and resilience. 

 
* Seventeen Shakespearean insults to unleash in everyday life.

 

* One of Shakespeare’s rare first folios has been discovered in the library at Saint-Omer, near Calais. 

 

* The late P.D. James's top ten writing tips.

 
* An interesting look at the top words used in poetry.

* Radio 4 are to broadcast a ten-hour adaptation of War and Peace on New Year's Day. 

 

* Zoella has broken records this week as her book Girl Online has become the fastest selling debut novel since records began.

* Love letters to libraries: Michael Morpurgo.

 

* The story behind Orkney Library's hilarious Twitter account.

 

  

* The Strand and the business model that's kept the NYC bookstore up and running despite the threat of Amazon and e-books. 

 

* Deborah Emin's theory: integrating libraries and bookstores. 

* CILIP protests against IWM library 'closure'. 

* George Osborne announced a new tax on UK-generated profits for multinationals such as Amazon.

 

* Is the e-reading revolution making the book more beautiful? 

 

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