Napoleon called the British a nation of shopkeepers. As the first Christmas of the 1914-18 war neared, those shopkeepers of Britain were concerned the country might be distracted from being a nation of customers. To remedy it for that year and throughout the war, much marketing effort was put into keeping the home tills ringing.… Continue reading “Useful present for a soldier”
Tag: death
Hunting for the bad, bad Benders
Not much is certain about the murderous Bender family except to say they were acknowledged to be America’s first serial killers — at least the first discovered. Were they a family? Probably not. Was Bender their real name? Almost certainly not. Even the number that they killed is uncertain. It was known to be around… Continue reading Hunting for the bad, bad Benders
A pebble on his grave: Albert Grant 1831-1899
He was once so eye-wateringly rich, he bought Leicester Square when it was under threat of redevelopment, just to give it to the nation.
“The Fiends We Are Fighting”
Now that the handwringing over the millions killed in the First World War has momentarily quietened, here’s a story that in all probability will not get told again, as it does not play the tidy vision of civilised nations fighting like gentlemen. This was behaviour of medieval barbarity — the kind that ISIL would exact,… Continue reading “The Fiends We Are Fighting”
Graffiti in church
Nowadays English parish churches are quaint, underused decorative motifs for period costume dramas and Kodak moments — but it seems that they weren’t always that way. Fascinating research that is at a very early stage of data gathering seems to point to a completely different role for the medieval church. The middle class Georgians and… Continue reading Graffiti in church
Warren Zevon; new readers start here
It can never do any harm to remember Warren Zevon once again. His wordplay was sublime in so many unexpected ways. It included such gems as the dark but deliciously assonantal recitative “a little old lady got mutilated late last night” (say it out loud) in Werewolves of London. Or the measured “And if California… Continue reading Warren Zevon; new readers start here