by David West | Feb 27, 2026 | News
Are we obsessed with murder? Well this month’s Red Herrings, the bulletin of the Crime Writers’ Association seems to think so. In an article by Connie Berry she suggests that the British mystery is one in which a seemingly impossible crime, usually a murder, occurs in...
by David West | Feb 27, 2026 | News
On the 27th of February, well, I fear I’m running out of history. King Henry IV of France was crowned, but I’ve covered him. Lord Byron gave his first address to the House of Lords, but I’ve covered him too. I could go on, but thankfully in 1900 the Labour Party was...
by David West | Feb 26, 2026 | News
On the 26th of February, 1995, the UK’s oldest investment bank, Barings, collapsed after the rogue securities broker, Nick Leeson, lost $1.4 billion speculating on futures contracts using the Singapore International Monetary Exchange. The collapse of Barings Bank in...
by David West | Feb 25, 2026 | News
On the 25th of February, 1939, the first Anderson Shelter was constructed in a garden in Islington. I remember when I was a child that one of my friends still had an Anderson Shelter in his back garden. The Anderson shelter was one of the most important civil-defence...
by David West | Feb 24, 2026 | News
On the 24th of February, 1809, London’s Drury Lane Theatre burnt to the ground leaving its owner, Richard Brinsley Sheridan destitute. Sheridan was an immensely talented man, and it’s him rather than the theatre that I want to write about. Sheridan was born in Dublin...
