One of the joys of researching my blog is that I learn quite a lot. The Famous Five to me evokes the adventure stories of my childhood, written by Enid Blyton. However, to Canadians it means something much more important.  The Famous Five refers to a group of...

On the 26th of August, 1791, John Fitch was granted a US patent for a steamboat. So often it is warfare that drives technical innovation, take the jet engine and rockets as just two examples. Yet fourteen years after the patent the Battle of Trafalgar was fought...

Wikipedia tells me that on the 25th of August, 1609, Galileo demonstrated his telescope to Venetian lawmakers. Galileo is a key character in Fire and Earth, the second book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. But let’s take a look at the development of the...

I recently posted about overcoming the monster as the most basic plot for story telling. I had just read John Le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, in which the book’s hero was also the monster. I have now finished reading the next book in the George Smiley...

I have recently given a friend of mine some investment advice. He has had a very poor record of investment in the past, so much so that he thought his investment had, in some mysterious way, brought about the collapse of the companies he had invested in. Of course...

Being British I am perhaps drawn to historical events in which we take pride, Waterloo, Trafalgar, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, etc. So for a change here’s one we can be thoroughly ashamed of. Wikipedia tells me that on the 23rd of August, 1839, Britain seized...

The Fettmilch Uprising took place in Frankfurt on the 22nd of August, 1614, a plundering of Frankfurt’s Jewish quarter, the Judengasse. It was the inspiration for Called to Account, the fourth book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. The Fettmilch Uprising, also...

On the 21st of August, 1808, British and Portuguese forces led by General Arthur Wellesley defeated French forces commanded by Major-General Jean-Andoche Junot near the village of Vimeiro in Portugal. It was the second victory of the Anglo-Portuguese alliance in the...

On the 20th of August, 1940, Leon Trotsky was fatally wounded in Mexico City when Ramón Mercader attacked him with an ice axe. Leon Trotsky, born Lev Davidovich Bronstein on the 7th of November, 1879, in Yanovka, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire), was a...

One of the joys of researching my blog is that I learn quite a lot. The Famous Five to me evokes the adventure stories of my childhood, written by Enid Blyton. However, to Canadians it means something much more important.  The Famous Five refers to a group of...

On the 26th of August, 1791, John Fitch was granted a US patent for a steamboat. So often it is warfare that drives technical innovation, take the jet engine and rockets as just two examples. Yet fourteen years after the patent the Battle of Trafalgar was fought...

Wikipedia tells me that on the 25th of August, 1609, Galileo demonstrated his telescope to Venetian lawmakers. Galileo is a key character in Fire and Earth, the second book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. But let’s take a look at the development of the...

I recently posted about overcoming the monster as the most basic plot for story telling. I had just read John Le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, in which the book’s hero was also the monster. I have now finished reading the next book in the George Smiley...

I have recently given a friend of mine some investment advice. He has had a very poor record of investment in the past, so much so that he thought his investment had, in some mysterious way, brought about the collapse of the companies he had invested in. Of course...

Being British I am perhaps drawn to historical events in which we take pride, Waterloo, Trafalgar, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, etc. So for a change here’s one we can be thoroughly ashamed of. Wikipedia tells me that on the 23rd of August, 1839, Britain seized...

The Fettmilch Uprising took place in Frankfurt on the 22nd of August, 1614, a plundering of Frankfurt’s Jewish quarter, the Judengasse. It was the inspiration for Called to Account, the fourth book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. The Fettmilch Uprising, also...

On the 21st of August, 1808, British and Portuguese forces led by General Arthur Wellesley defeated French forces commanded by Major-General Jean-Andoche Junot near the village of Vimeiro in Portugal. It was the second victory of the Anglo-Portuguese alliance in the...

On the 20th of August, 1940, Leon Trotsky was fatally wounded in Mexico City when Ramón Mercader attacked him with an ice axe. Leon Trotsky, born Lev Davidovich Bronstein on the 7th of November, 1879, in Yanovka, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire), was a...