by David West | Aug 11, 2023 | News
I thoroughly enjoyed giving my Canadian cousin Bill and his wife Sue a tour of Oxford this April. Bill must have started painting some of his fabulous watercolours, because he’s started his research to describe his subject. He sent me these facts today. The University...
by David West | Aug 9, 2023 | News
Simon Templar will come, but another fictional character must come first. James Bond has probably been an influence on my depiction of my family’s spy, Sir Anthony Standen. Kirkus say that The Spy who Sank the Armada has a ‘James Bond-esque atmosphere, whilst staying...
by David West | Aug 7, 2023 | News
You may think that I have selected a strange title for this post. Regular readers will know that I have been experimenting with artificial intelligence via Chat GBT. They also know that I often post about historical events that occurred on this day. On 7th August 1782...
by David West | Aug 5, 2023 | News
Point of view, and the reliability of narrators, are of great interest to writers. I’m just under halfway through reading “Power and reputation at the court of Louis XIII” by Sharon Kettering. This is research for the fifth book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures...
by David West | Aug 4, 2023 | News
A recent post was about Cambridge, so I thought I’d redress the balance and revisit Oxford. Simon de Montfort died on the 4th August 1265. When I collected my MA degree at a ceremony in the Sheldonian Theatre, I had to swear several oaths in Latin. I recall that one...
by David West | Aug 2, 2023 | News
Francis Walsingham and I were born a few miles from each other. He was born near Chislehurst, and I went to Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School. He went to Cambridge and I went to Oxford. That’s where the similarity ends, except that he was the spymaster who...
