by David West | Oct 29, 2023 | News
Why am I writing about cars and safety? As an author of historical fiction, I tend to mainly post about history and writing. However, before I retired and began writing the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures, I was a civil engineer, project manager, and risk manager. So I...
by David West | Oct 29, 2023 | News
No, I’m not talking about Miley Cyrus, great artist as she is. Cyrus II, or Cyrus the Great, ruled Persia from 600 to 530 B.C. On this day in 539 B.C. he marched into Babylon, freeing Jewish captives and allowing them to return home. Records of Babylon stretch back as...
by David West | Oct 27, 2023 | News
I recently posted about Oxford’s oldest college, and my own college, Saint Edmund Hall was a contender. So who was Saint Edmund? The first thing is to note that there are two Saint Edmunds. There was Saint Edmund the Martyr, King of East Anglia in the 9th century A.D....
by David West | Oct 26, 2023 | News
The photograph was taken at latitude 51.39 degrees north and longitude 0.50 degrees east. It’s of the guildhall in Rochester, only twenty-four miles from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, which explains its low longitude. The prime meridian runs through Greenwich. The...
by David West | Oct 24, 2023 | News
On the 24th October 1492, the authorities of Mecklenburg burnt twenty-four Jews at the stake. Their alleged crime was to desecrate the Host, that is the bread used in Holy Communion. The Jews were accused of having poured blood on the bread. It is now considered that...
