Mary Queen of Scots (1542-87) was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire. Elizabeth I was reluctant to sign the death warrant of her cousin and fellow Queen. She finally relented under pressure from her advisors, although she ordered her privy councillor not to send out the warrant. Despite her orders, the warrant was sent and Mary […]
As the trial of Anders Breivik gets underway in Norway I can’t help feeling that we are once again ignoring stark warnings from history. Anders Breivik has confessed to the murder of 77 people on 22nd July 2011, when he set off a bomb in the centre of Oslo and carried out a terrifying gun […]
Lord Darnley (1545-67), second husband of Mary Queen of Scots, was murdered at the age of 21, allegedly with the complicity of his wife. Mary and Darnley were cousins and were married after the death of her first husband, Francis II of France. The match appears, at least from Mary’s side, to have been born […]
The Woman Who Gave Birth To Rabbits is a collection of short stories by Emma Donoghue based on bizarre tales she came across while researching her novels. Fascinating snippets of history are brought to life with considerable skill and followed up with a brief authors note, mostly as interesting as the stories themselves. Donoghue starts […]
One of our neighbours is 95 years old and still lives in the house she has owned since the 1950s. On the occasion that she needs something or is inviting us over for drinks (from minute Victorian glasses), she pops a note through our door. I love reading her notes, they are written in tiny […]
Another great Etsy find..
“Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn’t every war fought between men, between brothers?“ Not only is Les Miserables a beautiful and powerful book, but Victor Hugo himself was a truly inspirational man. Some of the best quotes from Les Miserables sum up his philosophies. “We may be indifferent to […]
“It is a mistake to think that the practice of my art has become easy to me. I assure you, dear friend, no one has given so much care to the study of composition as I. There is scarcely a famous master in music whose works I have not frequently and diligently studied.” (Wolfgang Amadeus […]
‘Mozart’s Sister’ is a French film which was released last year and has finally hit cinema screens in the UK this weekend. It is, unsurprisingly, about Marie Anna (‘Nannerl’) Mozart, Wolfgang’s much loved older sister who was unable to pursue a career in music herself due to the restrictions placed on her sex. Whenever I […]
I wanted to share with you the weird and wonderful signature of Garcia I, King of Leon: It is brilliantly abstract in style and shows the fantastic imagination he must have had. Garcia was the eldest son of Alfonso III of Asturias, but on his fathers death he received only part of his father’s kingdom […]
