by David West | Aug 13, 2025 | News
On the 13th of August, 1624, King Louis XIII appointed Cardinal Richelieu as his prime minister. I have written about Richelieu before, and he is a character in my work in progress, the fifth book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. Armand Jean du Plessis, better...
by David West | Aug 12, 2025 | News
On the 12th of August, 1865, Joseph Lister performed the first antiseptic surgery. Since I introduced a doctor as an important character in Called to Account, the fourth book of the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures, I have had to research the history of medicine. Joseph...
by David West | Aug 11, 2025 | News
On the 11th of August, 1942, the actress Hedy Lamarr and the composer George Antheil were granted a patent for a frequency hopping, spread-spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones, two-way radio...
by David West | Aug 10, 2025 | News
I’m currently reading John Le Carré’s George Smiley series, in order. Writers are readers too, and although there’s little similarity between Elizabethan and Cold War tradecraft, at a human level the spies are essentially the same. There isn’t much more I can do with...
by David West | Aug 10, 2025 | News
The Treaty of Nonsuch was signed on the 10th of August, 1583, by Queen Elizabeth I and the Dutch rebels fighting Spanish rule. Historical Context The treaty emerged amidst the backdrop of the Dutch Revolt, an uprising of the Seventeen Provinces against the Spanish...
by David West | Aug 9, 2025 | News
On the 9th of August, 1974, Richard Nixon resigned as President of the United States as a direct result of the Watergate scandal. Origins of the Scandal The roots of the Watergate scandal trace back to the Nixon administration’s attempts to secure re-election in...
