
How illness at four key points affected history
I am sat in my flat with Covid. Not ill, but can't go out. However, with the weather outside being what it is, I don't wish to anyway!...

Synopsis for JW3 Rivers Course, Thurs 10 Feb
THE GANGES Introduction Mystical and religious nature of rivers Auspicious properties of Ganges Kumbla Mela Pollution of Ganges and...

Synopsis for JW3 Italian class, Thursday 10th Feb
SOCIAL PROGRESS & SOCIAL STAGNATION 1861-1915 That North/South divide again! Money and weights and measures Industrial Progress in the...

A Short Booklist on Austro-Hungary and First World War
The Sleepwalkers C.Clark The War that ended Peace M.MacMillan Both the above are general histories on the steps to war across...

Synopsis for JW3 Rivers class on Thurs 3rd Feb
Ol' Man River: The Mississippi Overview: Geographical and Historical As we will have discussed under the above heading there is almost...

Synopsis for JW3 Italy class on Thurs 3rd Feb
IMPERIAL AFRICAN DREAMS Our story today falls into two parts, viz:- Before and During Mussolini's Fascist Rule A. Before Mussolini....

Synopsis JW3 class on Italy, Th 27th Jan at 11.30
Unification: Loose tied up 1866 Venice and Venetia 1870 Rome and remaining Papal States The story of later Vatican-Italian relations...

JW3 Rivers Class Thurs 27th Jan
RIVER TRENT A little geographical and introductory background A dip into some of the history witnessed by The Trent:- a. Viking and Saxon...

Synopsis for JW3 class on America for Monday 18th March
'Victory' in The Cold War creates its own problems This will be the first of two lectures looking at how the world has reached the place...

Synopsis for JW3 Rivers Course Thurs 20 Jan
THE VOLGA: Russia's Iconic River The Mighty Mother Volga The Story of the Viking Rus and the Founding of first Russian State Story of the...

Synopsis for JW3 Italian History course this Thurs at 11.30
Some Background 1848 Revolutions Cavour Crimean War 1855 Situation 1860/61 ....to be continued next week Some Books (more added weekly)...

Synopsis for JW3 class on RIVERS, 13th Jan 2pm
Importance of Rivers Part 1 A personal story of the River Frome in Bristol Uses of Rivers thro' the ages with a closer look at Laundry...

Sago, Isle of Purbeck, Adders, Aphrodisiac, and Starch
A piece in John Lewis-Stempel's 'Nature Notes' in The Times last week caught my eye. He was writing about Arum Maculatum, more commonly...

A General Reading List
Prisoners of Time by Christopher Clark. Clark is a great historian of all things German. This book is sub-titled 'Prussians, Germans...

The Habsburgs: A Select Reading List
The Habsburgs Martyn Rady The Habsburgs Andrew Wheatcroft The Habsburg Empire Martyn Rady A Concise History of...

A New Year: Full of Promise, Full of Hope
January. The beginning of a new journey for all. A time to make New Year Resolutions. In Britain it is often today referred to as 'dry...

Items from my Commonplace Book
Nature always seemed to get on all right until people showed up. The novelist David Baldacci May you never meet a mouse in your pantry...

Words from Times Past in England
Many of these words will be familiar to older readers, whether they live in England or elsewhere, or at least the things they describe...

Answers to second Christmas quiz (v. below for the Quiz itself)
1 Black Panthers 2 US-Canadian Border 3 Teddy Roosevelt 4 Louisiana 5 Texas 6 If born before Independence Britain reserved the right to...