by David West | Sep 22, 2026 | News
The Battle of Zutphen was fought on the 22nd of September, 1586, during the Eighty Years’ War. This was the war that my ancestor, the Elizabethan spy, Sir Anthony Standen was involved in. However he was chased out of Flanders in 1577 and was spying in Spain in 1586....
by David West | Sep 21, 2026 | News
On the 21st of September, 455CE, Emperor Avitus entered Italy with a Gallic army and consolidated his power. I have written about several Roman emperors such as Julius Caesar and Marcus Aurelius, but I hadn’t heard of Avitus. Avitus was one of the last emperors of the...
by David West | Sep 20, 2026 | News
On the 20th of September, 1911, RMS Olympic collided with HMS Hawke. As a yachtsman and former officer of the Royal Naval Reserve, I can confirm that collisions between ships are to be avoided if at all possible. However her sister ships in the White Star Line, RMS...
by David West | Sep 19, 2026 | News
On the 19th of September, 1940, Witold Pilecki was voluntarily captured by by the German army and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp in order to gather information and smuggle it out to the resistance group. I’m struggling to get my head around this. The man...
by David West | Sep 18, 2026 | News
On the 18th of September, 1915, the Saturday Evening Post published a short story called Extricating Young Gussie by P.G. Wodehouse. It was the first appearnce of Bertie Wooster and his valet, Jeeves. I’ve written about some of my favourite writers such as Raymond...
