The Last Warrior Kings
The British monarch retains the ultimate power to send the country to war, but the decision is…
William Pitt the Younger
Britain’s youngest ever and second-longest-serving Prime Minister – almost 19 years – was William Pitt the Younger…
Port Talbot
Generations of the Talbot family owned an estate in Margam on the South Wales coast. In 1836…
‘Black Adder’ & ‘Blackadder’
There were four Seasons of six episodes each in the ‘Black Adder’ or ‘Blackadder’ TV comedy series. They…
Malapropisms and Spoonerisms
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) had Irish lineage and was an MP at Westminster for 32 years, lending…
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The cuneiform writing system of the ancient Middle Eastern nations first began to be deciphered in the…
Henry Purcell, composer
Henry Purcell‘s (1659-95) destiny was unsurprising in direction, though meteoric in impact on the musical sphere of…
Trafalgar Day
Vice-Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) was an incomparable naval hero who sealed our dominance at sea throughout…
The Book of Common Prayer
The successive 1549, 1552, 1559, 1604 and 1662 editions of The Book of Common Prayer illustrate the struggle…
The Whips
In 1742 Lord Guernsey (1715-77) compared huntsmen’s assistants ‘whipping-in’ straying hounds back into the pack with Parliamentary…
Drugs
Many different drugs can be prescribed by doctors in the UK, except for substances that have no…
The Kilt
The kilt has its roots in the Scottish Highlands, where a long tunic of thick plaid (not…