by David West | Nov 26, 2024 | News
I use the On This Day website for inspiration more than fact. It says that on 3rd December 1586 Sir Thomas Herriot introduced potatoes to England from Colombia. I can’t find a Sir Thomas Herriot, but there was a Sir Thomas Harriot. Harriot became a close associate of...
by David West | Nov 25, 2024 | News
On 25th November 1741 Elizabeth seized Russia from her cousin Anna Ivanovna. Elizabeth Petrovna, known as Elizabeth of Russia, was one of the most intriguing figures of the Russian imperial history. Born on December 29, 1709, she was the daughter of Peter the Great...
by David West | Nov 24, 2024 | News
In Fire and Earth, the second book of the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures, Standen meets Galileo. In 1609 he was the first man to observe the phases of Venus through a telescope. Astronomy then advanced quite quickly. Jeremiah Horrocks (1618-1641) was a pioneering...
by David West | Nov 23, 2024 | News
Apparently Charlemagne never said “Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky” as suggested by Sean Connery in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. But he was the first Holy Roman Emperor. Pope Leo III (reigned 795–816) is best known for his...
by David West | Nov 22, 2024 | News
Are beards in? For most of my life I’ve been clean shaven. I grew a moustache for a few months in 1987, but it didn’t suit me. When I walked the Camino de Santiago in 2019 I was saving every ounce of weight in the backpack, so razor and shaving foam were out. The...
