Beting Marau
This week’s blog marks the anniversary of another massacre. Sorry about that. This one was on 31 July 1849 and, yet again, was a result of the clash of cultures when Europeans began to rule countries in the Far East. In this case, it wasn’t technically colonialism...
The Battle of the Pyramids
It's till summer, so here's a short post to allow you the maximum possible time out in the sun. Today (21 July) is the anniversary of the Battle of the Pyramids, which gave Napoleon control of Egypt. It features in the upcoming Ridley Scott film, Napoleon, and you can...
The Massacre at the Bibighar
It's Thursday evening and I have no idea what people would like me to write about for tomorrow. I do ask suggestions from time to time but I don't get an awful lot of feedback, especially at this time of year when I think people have more interesting things to do than...
Bristol
It's summer and everybody has better things to do with their time than sit and read my blog post. My beloved and I have been away for a couple of days having much more fun than if I'd stayed home writing. We've been to Bristol, so our trip has had a historical element...
The invasion of Buenos Aires – June 1806
The trouble with anniversaries is that they come round every year. I've been threatening to spend less of my time writing blog posts so as we, yet again, mark the anniversary of the British invasion of Buenos Aires, I'm recycling one from last year. (I've edited it a...
A visit to Kew Palace
I visit quite a lot of historic sites around Britain but surprisingly few that relate directly to the periods that I write about. So my trip to Kew Palace this week was particularly enjoyable. I visited before, many years ago when it was rather a sad shadow of itself...
Indian Mutiny or War of Independence?
In an age when any conversations about empire and colonialism can be triggering, I’ve always been quite surprised that the John Williamson Papers don’t seem to have attracted a lot of political attacks. I’m surprised rather than pleased, because there is no doubt that...
Marble Hill House – What happened to the house after the last private owners left?
Last week I wrote about Marble Hill House, the beautiful Palladian villa built for Henrietta Howard in the first half of the 18th century. After her death, it passed to her nephew and then her great-niece before being rented out to a succession of tenants (including...
Marble Hill House
I've just realised that I've hardly ever written about Marble Hill House. I've written a lot about the park, but hardly anything about the house itself. This is a peculiar omission, especially as I’ve started doing some volunteer work over there so I'll be spending a...
Paperback Pricing
From 20 June, Amazon are increasing the print costs on their paperbacks. Inevitably this means their authors have to review what they are charging for the books. All my Burke books are currently £8.99 which I judged as being roughly the “going rate” for this sort of...