Tuesday, 27 April 2021

Gladstone v. Disraeli: The Great Victorian Rivalry

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[Above: Punch cartoon of Disraeli on left, and Gladstone as two characters from an operetta by Burnand and Sullivan] William Gladstone and ...
Saturday, 3 April 2021

Henry VIII's Lost Palace: Nonsuch

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In 1538, Henry VIII began construction of a large palace on some 700 acres of royal land between Cheam and Ewell in Surrey. (Image: portrait...
Tuesday, 23 March 2021

The Logical Fallacy Behind Anti-Vaccine Claims

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Historically, anti-vaxxers have presented various reasons not to be vaccinated for diseases. If we include a proto-vaccine, inoculation for ...
Wednesday, 10 March 2021

The British Monarchy and the Media in Historical Perspective

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Writing in The Independent  16/12/22 Sean O'Grady refers to the revelations of the new Harry/Meghan Netflix series as "a tsunami of...
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Thursday, 4 March 2021

Smallpox and the First Vaccine: A Lesson for Our Covid Time

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The greatest weapon human beings possess against infectious disease is vaccines. They are also one of the most cost-effective, because they ...
Monday, 8 February 2021

Darwin's Bulldog Bites Soapy Sam: The Oxford "Debate" over Evolution, 1860

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In June 1860, seven months after Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species , scientists gathered at the Oxford University Museum. Th...

"The Tay Bridge Disaster": Magnum Opus of "History's Worst Poet"

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On a stormy night in December 1879 one of the worst railway accidents in British history occurred. It resulted from the collapse of a bridg...