I caught up with Kazuo Ishiguro in 1995. Six years earlier The Remains of the Day had won the Booker prize and it was two years since Merchant Ivory’s adaptation had hit the big screen. He had just published his fourth book, The Unconsoled – a book which could never live up to the literary… Continue reading We are all Butlers
Mr Punch’s dog
I tracked down Toby (a riotous East End paper named after Punch’s dog that got the authorities’ rag and landed its editor in prison)…a paper slated as ‘a disreputable and pestilential print’ and ‘a scandal to the country’ by the judge who would later try Oscar Wilde. Discover the extraordinary married couple behind the publication… Continue reading Mr Punch’s dog
Dr Who’s sea legs
Book talk: what an 18th century novel about flying to the moon really has to say.
Building a Cathedral
Book talk: Graham Palmer chats to best-selling author Jo Browning Wroe
Revolting Royston (2): Royston’s Bastille
Britain is close to bankruptcy and the government is looking to make cuts. A riot threatens when the ‘Reverend Agitator’ FH Maberly calls a mass meeting in 1836 to protest against Royston’s new Poor Law Workhouse. City centres around Britain have gone up in flames. Will Royston be next?
The Reverend Agitator
I’m really looking forward to sharing how Royston reacted to the New Poor Law in my talk next week at Royston Museum…
The Terror and the Light
As the ripples spread from the dissolution of a small town’s priory, a spy is caught and Cromwell has him racked. My latest podcast tells what happens next. ‘The Terror and the Light’ (developed for the British Association for Local History) ties in with the broadcast of the last episode of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. Milady… Continue reading The Terror and the Light
New video and podcast
I spotted an old postcard on ebay 3 years back and snapped it up. It was posted from Royston. From the message on the back it was clear that the writer was really not happy that 1,100 Welsh soldiers would soon be leaving the town. That got me thinking, ‘Why was she so sad? And what were they doing there anyway?’’
EH Whydale and Royston’s lost paintings
Picture this…. It’s 1937. The far-right is on the rise throughout Europe. In Paris, Picasso is painting a dying horse in his anti-war masterpiece Guernica, while Orwell is visiting the front-line of the Spanish Civil War taking notes. When he returns to his cottage (in the tiny Hertfordshire village of Wallington), Orwell will work these notes up… Continue reading EH Whydale and Royston’s lost paintings
William Blake’s Universe
William Blake’s artwork never makes it onto shortbread tins. It is far too disturbing for that. His colours are a psychedelic nightmare. The Fitzwilliam Museum’s exhibition tries to ask, ‘Why?’ Who was this man who challenged artistic orthodoxy and why did he frame himself as Joseph of Arimathea at a time when the whole world… Continue reading William Blake’s Universe