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New Historical Drama for 2017 by Katherine Clements
With the proliferation of historical drama now available on our small screens, you might think we’d be suffering from costume overload. But dramatists and filmmakers are still turning to the past for...
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Perspective, by Antonia SeniorSometimes, when I am ill, I play a game with myself, to curb excessive moping. How many times would I have died, had I live in ye olde days?My current count is twice. Once...
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LA LA IN THE RAIN – Elizabeth Fremantle has some thoughts on Hollywood old...
I’ve been happy to learn about the haul of Golden Globes for La La Land. I thought it a delight of a film, echoing old-style Hollywood, with two phenomenal central performances. It’s not particularly...
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Stories from Japan by Lesley Downer
‘Please allow me to introduce myself ...’ as the Devil said in the Rolling Stones’ song ...There’s a phrase in Japanese: jiko shokai. It means ‘self introduction’ and it’s what you do when you meet a...
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Why the (Western) World loves an Extrovert, by Fay Bound Alberti
On New Year's Eve my friend and I sat in a busy venue, gently grumbling at all the bonhomie involved in the celebrations: strangers hugging, singing and optimistically making predictions for 2017. We...
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A do-it-yourself wassailing kit - by Sue Purkiss
I wasn't particularly aware of the ancient custom of wassailing until recently. Okay, about this time of year you tend to see pictures in the local paper of people with green faces cavorting among...
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ON READING "THE WICKED BOY". By Penny Dolan
The Wicked Boy arrived as a Christmas gift. I was very glad to see him there by my armchair. I had noticed the tall “publicity piles” in Waterstones - and other outlets - and seen various reviews and...
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Providing they miss... Clare Hollingsworth: 1911 - 2017 - Celia Rees
Clare Hollingworth 1911 - 2017Last Wednesday, it was announced that Clare Hollingworth, doyenne of foreign correspondents, had died in Hong Kong at the age of 105. During her long life she reported on...
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Cowboys and Indians by Katherine Webb
Yesterday, I finished reading Sebastian Barry's Days Without End, one of the books I was given for Christmas. It is simply breathtaking. The book recently won the Costa Novel of the Year award, and I...
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Admiral Duncan: Forgotten Hero - by Ann Swinfen
Danloux' painting of Duncan on VenerableAdmiral Adam Duncan was once a celebrated hero for his great victory over the Dutch fleet under De Winter off Camperdown in October 1797 – a victory which has...
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Goat Glands by Imogen Robertson
No idea why it would occur to me to recommend a documentary about an American charlatan to you fine people today. Just one of those things, I guess.The documentary in question is 'Man of The People',...
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Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons: Hollywood's Killer Queens by Catherine Hokin
Christmas may be over but for movie buffs, fashion lovers and celebrity spotters, the tinsel is still well and truly sparkling. The Golden Globes, the BAFTAs, the Oscars: awards season is upon us....
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A woman, a dog, and a walnut tree.. by Leslie Wilson
This advertisement appeared in 1903, and I hope that to all my readers it will seem as shocking as to myself. What is equally shocking is that in fact it contains the essence of the abuser's mind-set;...
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Richard the Lionheart - what we think we know by Elizabeth Chadwick
Statue of Richard Coeur de Lion outsidethe Houses of Parliament, Westminster|Carlo Marochetti 1856. Modern audiencesare frequently critical of the work andconsider it does not deserve its position.I...
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Highgate Cemetery by Miranda Miller
At the very end of 2016, when the year itself seemed exhausted by its own historical weight, I visited Highgate cemetery with Britta, a friend who grew up in East Berlin. On a frosty sunny morning...
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Marching for Women's Rights, Carol Drinkwater
Last Saturday, the 21st January 2017, I met up with a couple of friends alongside the Apollo Fountain in the impressive Place Massena in Nice. We, along with about seventy others, were gathering to...
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The Queen of Tonga by Janie Hampton
Here’s a story to cheer you up on a miserable cold day at the end of January. On a June afternoon in 1953, a golden coach was pulled through the crowded streets of London in the pouring rain by eight...
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Baby, it's cold outside by Julie Summers
Seventy seven years ago today Great Britain was paralysed by the most dramatic cold snap of the twentieth century. Winter 1947 was cold. Very cold indeed and there was a lot of snow for a very long...
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Love and Ambition in the Arctic by Stef Penney
Continuing our cold theme, our guest for January is Stef Penney.Photo credit: Ian Plillips-McLaren Stef Penney grew up in Edinburgh. She is a screenwriter and the author of three novels: The Tenderness...
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