by David West | Dec 21, 2025 | News
I have made my selection for today’s post from the birthday section. Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) was one of the most influential figures in 19th-century British politics, celebrated both for his literary talents and his role as a two-time Prime Minister. He remains...
by David West | Dec 20, 2025 | News
I have just finished reading John Le Carré’s George Smiley series, in order, as I said I would. So I have a minute or so ago turned the final page of A Legacy of Spies. I have read it before, and posted having done so eighteen months ago. But when I read it this time...
by David West | Dec 20, 2025 | News
I have posted about the Falkland Islands before. I watched the Falklands Conflict of 1982 played out on the news, whilst studying at Oxford. I served in the Royal Naval Reserve with men who had served in that conflict. Claire and I visited the Falkland Isles in 2019....
by David West | Dec 19, 2025 | News
On the 19th of December, 1783, William Pitt the Younger became the youngest Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the age of 24. William Pitt the Younger (1759–1806) was one of the most influential and remarkable figures in British political history. Born on 28 May...
by David West | Dec 18, 2025 | News
On the 18th of December, 1118, King Alsonso I of Aragon seized the city of Zaragoza from the Almoravid. King Alfonso I of Aragon and Zaragoza, often styled Alfonso I of Aragon and Navarre, and popularly known as Alfonso the Battler (c. 1073 – 1134), was one of the...
by David West | Dec 17, 2025 | News
Wikipaedia tells me that the first account of a blood transfusion was published as a letter from the physician Richard Lower to the chemist Robert Boyle on the 17th of December, 1665, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. I recently made my 16th...
