Sunday 5 June 2016

Gaps in our history

Every now and then I notice a gap in my bookshelf - Volume 5 of Winston Churchill's epic, 'The Second World War'.

One volume of a barely read series on my bookshelf is not there, and sadly that bothers me.  His entire series on 'World War One' isn't there at all.  There are a few other gaps which only a Bodleian sized Library could fill, and that's before you touch on archives and primary sources of 'history'.

Wednesday 1 June 2016

European matters

Enjoying Macaron in Rouen
 in the marketplace where
 Joan d'Arc burned
Today we visited Rouen - a city whose heroine, Joan of Arc, was decisive in setting Euro-sceptic British sentiment for centuries after French victory in the Hundred Years war.  The referendum could be another historical moment marking isolationist Britian's waining political influence in the World, brought on our own heads