Historical facts and comment.
Laurence Blair (b 09) is pleased to report that his first book, PATRIA, was published by Vintage Books on 7 November 2024. PATRIA is an alternative history of South America, combining archival research, travel writing, and a decade’s worth of present-day reporting for the BBC, the Guardian, and the New York Times from across the … Read more
As an Oxford undergraduate in the early 1960s, Stanley Johnson, along with two friends, embarked on an ambitious journey to retrace the steps of the 13th-century explorer Marco Polo. Their goal was to follow Polo’s legendary route from Venice to Beijing. Stanley’s new book, “In the Footsteps of Marco Polo,” begins with this adventurous expedition … Read more
New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the world’s greatest cultural institutions. Its holdings encompass a vast range—including paintings, sculptures, costumes, instruments, and arms and armor—and span millennia, from ancient Egypt and Greece to Islamic art to European Old Masters and modern artists. How did the Met amass this trove, and what … Read more
This is the first known biography of Sir Charles Bullen Hugh Mitchell GCMG, former Governor of the Straits Settlements and District Grand Master of the Freemasons in the Eastern Archipelago. The book traces his early life as an officer in the Royal Marines, where he served for 15 years, ending up with the rank of … Read more
Eighth Army Versus Rommel is a riveting account of the Desert War from 1940 through Montgomery’s celebrated battle of Alamein in 1942. Comprehensively researched and rich in previously unpublished material, it examines the undertrained and underfunded pre-war British Army, contrasting its leadership with its opposite numbers in Germany, and demonstrates how and why Eighth Army had … Read more
Sherborne at War – Including a reappraisal of the 1940 air raid on Sherborne. Why did the Germans launch a nuisance raid against Sherborne on 6 July 1940? Why have historical accounts of the Sherborne bombing raid of 30 September 1940 been significantly in error? Why have Sherborne’s secret factories never been recognised for their … Read more
The Final Curtain: Burma 1941-1945 compromises interviews with some of the very few surviving veterans of this most arduous of campaigns. In their own words, soldiers, sailors and airmen now aged between 95 and 101 vividly recount the experiences that they endured more than 75 years ago. Imprint: Pen & Sword Military Pages: 312 Illustrations: 120 … Read more
In Eye on the World, volume #72 in the Diplomats and Diplomacy Series, Ambassador Anthony “Tony” Quainton offers an engaging account of the competing visions, dilemmas, and messiness of the diplomatic process, along with the candid, often self-critical story of his long and storied career in eleven countries on six continents in a diversity of … Read more
Thirty years ago, the last days of the Gulf War were being fought outside Kuwait between the coalition forces and the Iraqi military. Throughout the conflict, a candle was kept alight in the School chapel and the names of all serving relations, friends and old boys were remembered in prayers each Tuesday morning. One of … Read more
‘Exceptional…a subtle, fascinating braiding of travel, cultural and natural history… It is a pleasure and an education to journey with Posnett in these pages’ – Robert Macfarlane. In a centuries-old tradition, farmers in north-western Iceland scour remote coastal plains for the down of nesting eider ducks. High inside a cast cave in Borneo, men perched … Read more