There’s an article in the Guardian today that makes a historian smile/cry with frustration/enthusiasm. Richard Godwin in the Guardian quotes Churchill one set of people get control, who compel all others to obey and aid them in folly He also refers to recent attempts by Brexiteers to draw Poland into the fray. Interestingly, Poland (or […]

Inability to communicate starts at ideological level: the surface hides a deep well of history and expectation. The image comes from Richard Verstegan’s 1582 Praesentis Ecclesiae (courtesy of Stonyhurst College) and shows the theologians behind the torture of Edmund Campion on the rack in August 1581. Although Campion achieved his goal of public disputations, it was […]

And so does the smell! The Maes Garmon monument commemorates the battle of 420 CE  recorded by the Venerable Bede when faith won out over the Picts and Anglo-Saxons. It was a victory for the Britons (who Bede doesn’t usually back) but this time they were inspired by Germanus of Auxerre who was in Britain […]

It’s Brexit night! I’m setting up this blog just as Westminster votes on Brexit Deal (15 January 2019). How appropriate! Andrew Neil interviewed Matt Hancock (Health Sec), and the two of them locked horns about who was listening to that which could be clearly seen. The sense of sight is a major theme of the […]