by David West | Jan 24, 2026 | News
It can’t have escaped the attention of visitors to my website that I write historical fiction. Since discovering my ancestor, the Elizabethan spy, Sir Anthony Standen, I have become a bit of an amateur historian. My formal education in history ended after the third...
by David West | Jan 24, 2026 | News
I have posted about the Tudor period many times, not least anything concerning my ancestor, the Elizabethan spy Sir Anthony Standen. I have written about a few of his wives: Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Catherine of Aragon, and Catherine Parr, but I have not, until now,...
by David West | Jan 23, 2026 | News
On the 23rd of January, 1879, the Battle of Rorke’s Drift ended. It is depicted in the classic 1964 film Zulu, directed by Cy Endfield, and starring Michael Cane, Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobssen and many others. The Battle of Rorke’s Drift, fought on the...
by David West | Jan 22, 2026 | News
On the 22nd of January, 1941, Tobruk was captured from the Italians by British and Commonwealth forces during the Western Desert campaign of World War Two. Although Tobruk features on my father’s battle honours, that was the 1942 battle in which we retook it from the...
by David West | Jan 21, 2026 | News
On the 21st of January, 1854, RMS Tayleur sank on her maiden voyage near Lambey Island on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Australia. The RMS Tayleur was a British iron-hulled sailing ship whose disastrous maiden voyage in January 1854 resulted in one of the worst...
by David West | Jan 20, 2026 | News
On the 20th of January, 1649, proceedings began in the High Court of Justice in the trial of King Charles I. Charles was not born to be king, but his elder brother Henry Frederick died of typhoid, at the age of 18, in 1612. In addition to succeeding Henry as king,...
