Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

Dear Reader, The third birthday of Beachcombing’s Bizarre History has just passed. A huge thanks to all those friends and correspondents who send in the material that really matters on this blog, 15000 words below from the last month alone: thanks too to the tireless link senders.  Here in Italy all is rainy and crappy […]

Dear Reader, Sorry but no time. Today is a national holiday that means I have to walk to get to my final exam (university open but buses not running). then I hope to spend the summer writing cool articles about north-western English fairy history (boggarts, bogles…) and enjoying this blog. Here are  the 13000 most […]

Dear Reader, March was a dark time in the Beachcombing family. Snow-white the family hamster died under unfortunate circumstances: actually my fault. Elder daughter began collecting worms. Younger daughter teeth. The adults had an enjoyable bout of flu that led this blogger into low grade hallucinations on his sick bed: violets falling from the sky… And […]

Dear Readers, Today Beach went out for his early morning walk and saw a magpie flying with twigs to a nest: spring is here, vitamin D levels are set to spike and the daffodils are fighting their way through the snow.Just another eight weeks and term is over and Beach can get to the serious […]

Dear Reader, Beach should start by thanking the trusty Raoul for rearranging the site and making the home page more readable. He also wants to thank Adrian for helping him with the collation of the best bizarre history stories from this month. These two have proved life savers in a very difficult period work-wise: I […]

Dear Reader, 1 Jan 2012 Beach takes this opportunity to wish a happy new year to all and one. December was a horrifically busy month with ill health mixed in and it is only in the last couple of days that we’ve managed to put the best responses up from this month’s emails. We particularly […]

Dear Reader Dec 1 and sorry for the lateness of this post but all busy here. Above Beach’s head the workmen are smashing his roof to pieces. Below the kids are dismantling his living room. And Mrs B is threatening to dismantle Beach’s head should he not hurry up and finish. So without further ado: […]

Dear Reader, All well in the Beachcombing household except the roof renovations have not yet begun and the cold is closing in. Prepare for posts about arctic weather and creativity below zero. New aupair from the six counties is settling and apart from the fact we are all wearing long johns life is fine. In […]

Dear Reader, Difficult month here among the Beachcombings as news of ill health haunts the family and term kicks up all the dust imaginable: think dry sand stretch after a motorbike race. Fairies have been placed on hold after an  intense elfen summer and Beach himself has turned back to more conventional history: you can […]

Dear Readers, 1 Sept 2012 This last months has been one of intense work and, at least for a couple of days, intense rest. Lots of writing was done and for six gruelling days Beach put footnotes down like breadcrumbs in the forest:  he can still hear the screeching of the ravens in his dreams. […]

Dear Readers, it is that time again. The ten-thousand best words on this blog from July are summarized below. A migraine attack means that they still have not all been processed. We’ll get to that in the next few days. One new thing on the blog this month is the list of resources on the […]

Dear Readers, it is that time again. The ten-thousand best words on this blog from June are summarized below. We have everything from Invisible on BVM and Fairies, Splendid Chap on Marjorie Johnson (RIP), Sarah Schechner on Elizabethan telescopes, Prof Françoise Villedieu on Nero’s rotating dining room and Michael Lauck and Mike Dash on conjuring history books. […]

Dear Reader, 1 June This month has been overshadowed in the Beachcombing household by the illness of Little Miss B, which has taken up most of the last week. The patient (agony was had) is now doing well and yesterday insisted on blowing her sheep whistle and ordering her father around the room: usually a […]

Dear Reader, 1 May 2012 This has been one of the busiest months on record. Aupairs came and went, students declined and fell into exams and, though Beachcombing couldn’t bear to write about it at the time, there was a rat’s nest under the stairs: they had their young in some loveletters from two decades […]

Dear Reader, The Beachcombed post is normally the moment when Beachcombing takes pause. Today, however, there is simply no time. Mrs B is back, but until Easter there is no danger of things slackening. Perhaps by then we’ll have an aupair? So enjoy the following ten thousand best words from readers’ emails from this month. […]