by David West | Jul 21, 2025 | News
The Battle of Jemmingen was fought on the 21st of July, 1568, during the Eighty Years’ War. At that time my ancestor, Sir Anthony Standen, was in Paris trying to gain the favour of the English ambassador. When Francis Walsingham took over as English ambassador,...
by David West | Jul 20, 2025 | News
Two events caught my attention for today’s post. On the 20th of July in 1903, the Ford Motor Company shipped its first automobile, and in 1807, Napoleon awarded a patent to Nícephore Níepce for his Pyrélophore, the first internal combustion engine. I studied...
by David West | Jul 19, 2025 | News
The Mary Rose was a formidable Tudor warship, emblematic of England’s maritime ambitions during the reign of King Henry VIII. Constructed between 1509 and 1511 in Portsmouth, she was named possibly after Henry VIII’s sister, Mary, and the Tudor emblem, the...
by David West | Jul 18, 2025 | News
The 18th of July strikes me as bad day for Jews. It was on this day in 1925 that Adolf Hitler published Mein Kampf, and it was the day in 1290 that King Edward I, or Edward Longshanks, issued his Edict of Expulsion, which banished all Jews from England. Edward...
by David West | Jul 17, 2025 | News
On the 17th of July, 1936, the Spanish armed forces rebelled against the recently elected left-wing Popular Front government, sparking the Spanish Civil War. Vendetta in Spain, by Dennis Wheatley, is one of my favourite books. It gives a good account of the start of...
by David West | Jul 16, 2025 | News
On the 16th of July, 1661, the Swedish bank Stockholm Banco issued Europes first banknotes. I had wondered when folding money might appear in my books, the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. My characters must tire of carrying all those ducats, pistoles and livres...
