New History Books: Black Thursday February 20, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : New History BooksTony Judt’s Lost Classic February 20, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary
Invisible books are, as long time readers of this blog will know, books that have never existed save in the imagination. Beach has offered, over the years, many such invisible titles, most dreamt up or taken from books (where there are shelves and shelves of these non-existent volumes). However, a new sub-category of invisible book […]
Daily History Picture: Howard’s Kills February 19, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesPoetic Justice and Four British Traitors February 19, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary
The second in our Poetic Justice series (covered Molotov in Mongolia a year ago) is dedicated to George Blake, Donald MacClean, Kim Philby and Guy Burgess. Beach has treated these sorry four briefly on another occasion: Dealing with Double Agents. But for the uninitiated all were British spies whose night job was to work for […]
Daily History Picture: Washington Carved February 18, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesWhere is the Dorset Ooser? February 18, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
The Dorset Ooser is a simply terrifying horned head/mask that was once kept in the village of Melbury Osmond: it so shocked a man there in the mid nineteenth century that he jumped through a window and almost died from his wounds. As can be imagined there are some very colourful theories about its purpose […]
Daily History Picture: Transvestite German Soldiers February 17, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesReview: Return to Magonia February 17, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, Modern
This review should begin with an important caveat. The author loathes UFOs, aliens and Close Encounters of the Third Kind: mosquito smudges on the window of our existence. Yet the book pictured above, which details a series of mysterious objects in the sky (and near to the earth) from 1662 to 1947, gripped and impressed […]
Daily History Picture: Cree Chieftain February 16, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesThe Last Crusade, 1996-1999 February 16, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, Medieval
Beach is always curious about the present’s manipulation of the past and there are few subjects that have been manipulated more than the Crusades. Those men and women who set off towards the Holy Land, in 1095 have been cast in almost every imaginable role in the last two hundred years. They have been made into […]
Daily History Picture: Eiffel Tower Possibilities February 15, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesVictorian Cannabis Use February 15, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
Cannabis became illegal in the United Kingdom once the 1925 Dangerous Drug Acts came into force in 1928. However, before that there was a long tradition of ‘hemp’ smoking in the country: mainly for medicinal reasons. Regrettably we know little about British hemp-smokers. Victorian interest in opium often reached almost hysterical levels: but interest in […]
New History Books: Queen of Spies February 14, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : New History BooksDying from Fright: Women and the Weak Minded? February 14, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
A lazy morning and so Beach inspired by his recent post of a girl who died of fear decided to look a little deeper. How many people really die because they are frightened? To carry out a half decent experiment he surveyed the British press from January 1850 to December 1859. He ignored probable urban […]