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Trials and errors: experimental test flying in the 1970s.
The 1970s came in riding a psychedelic surfboard on the wave of newfound confidence built by the sex, drugs and rock and roll of the 1960s. Despite the free love and flower...
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The Friday Digest 06/02/15
This week's update features Alan Turing's lost notes, the sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird and shopping under the Iron Curtain. * How deadly was the poison gas of the First World War? * Historians...
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Creating ghost stories
Essex, in spite of its friendly and prosperous present, has an ancient history of Roman invaders and Saxon immigrants, Pagan groves and Christian conversions, Viking raiders, Norman conquerors, Civil...
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Fear and vaccination
Charles Williams, A monster being fed baskets of infants and excreting them with horns; symbolising vaccination and its effects. 1802. Wellcome Library, London. Measles is making a comeback in the...
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The razing of Hammerfest in February 1945
Seventy years ago in February 1945 the modern gas boom town of Hammerfest in the Norwegian Arctic was reduced to ashes by Nazi troops carrying out a scorched earth retreat in the face of a huge Red...
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Britain’s final steam trains
Travelling by steam train has to be one of the greatest pleasures of life. The steam locomotive, a vital cog of the nineteenth century industrial revolution, was undoubtedly one of man’s finest...
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Why was Charles Darwin a giant of science?
Science looks forward: it anticipates rather than remembers. As a result, while the scientific future catches our imagination for its remarkable challenges and potential solutions, the scientific past...
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The Friday Digest 13/02/15
This week's update features fear and vaccination, maps that shaped the world and iconic love letters. * How did a lowly Welshman bed a queen and sire a dynasty? * What clothes did people wear in the...
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The romance of the high seas
Of course it was the Boat Deck. Ever since ship designers invented the derrick which raised the lifeboat above the deck, they inadvertently or perhaps deliberately, increased the shadow line which...
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Why do we love a 'happily ever after'?
Let’s face it, we love to hear ‘and they lived happily ever after’ at the end of a story. We feel a warm happy glow when two people overcome the odds to reunite in a kiss as the movie ends and we feel...
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Pollies! The emergence of women police during the First World War
For many women, the outbreak of the First World War was an opportunity to break free of their conventional roles—as mothers, homemakers, and carers for elderly relatives—and make careers for...
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Horse-drawn transport in Leeds: William Turton, Corn Merchant and Tramway...
The Times in 1834 offered a list of 'Omnibus Law' that included: 'Do not spit on the straw. You are not in a hog-sty but in an omnibus travelling in a country which boasts of its refinement.' And...
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Dr Kathryn Hughes at Saltaire Bookshop on 26/02/15
Dr Kathryn Hughes will be at Saltaire Bookshop on Monday 26th February from 7.00pm signing copies of her new book, Great War Britain Bradford: Remembering 1914-18. The First World War claimed...
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Sean McGlynn and Catherine Hanley at Strode College, Street, Somerset on...
Authors Sean McGlynn and Catherine Hanley will be at a conference (Strode College, Street, Somerset) on 28th March from 9:30am-4:30pm. Book tickets with Strode Theatre box office: 01458 442846 or...
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Sean McGlynn and Catherine Hanley at Civic Centre, Trowbridge on 25/04/15
Authors Sean McGlynn and Dr Catherine Hanley will be at Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Conference on 25th April from 9:30am-4:30pm. Tickets cost £10 and include a buffet lunch - available at...
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David Jones at Woodbridge Books, Woodbridge on 28/02/15
David Jones will be at Woodbridge Books, Woodbridge on Saturday 28th February frp, 12-1pm signing copies of his new book, The Ipswich Witch: Mary Lackland and the Suffolk Witch Hunts. The year 1645...
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My dad's war
To say war is terrible is of course a cliche but only so because it is a universal truth. Equally so is the phrase that someone’ had a very interesting war.’ That certainly applies to my father,...
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Adrian Murdoch at Alderney Literary Festival on 21/03/15
Adrian Murdoch will be at Alderney Literary Festival on Saturday 21st March from 3:30-4:30pm giving a talk on 'Bringing the Dead of Herculaneum to Life' followed by a Q & A session. He will also...
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The Friday Digest 20/02/15
This week's update features Teddy Girls, Victorian pancakes and the victims of the first crusade. * A letter from Ernest Hemingway's widow could finally solve the mystery of the Cuban farmhouse...
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The special gift of a family tree
Researching your family history can teach you a lot about your ancestry. It also makes a wonderful gift once you have completed your research. Give it as an anniversary present, birthday gift or for...
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