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Bobby Fischer: genius needing psychiatric help
As I wrote in an earlier post, American Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) played world championship matches in 1970–1 when he won 20 consecutive games before losing once and drawing 3 times to ex-world...
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Mercy Ships, lifesaving surgery in Africa
Don Stephens founded Mercy Ships in 1978, as a Christian charity headquartered in Texas, with the purchase of the SS Anastasis. During his time as President of Mercy Ships, Don directed and led...
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Medieval sexual abuse & clerical crimes
From the late 1980s, allegations of sexual abuse of children associated with Catholic institutionsand clerics in several countries started to be the subject of formal investigations. In Ireland, in...
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Feodor Ruckert Faberge silver, cloisonné enamel
Ruckert, coloured tea service, 1887-96, AlamyEarly medieval Russian silver often included calm niello work and ornamental lines with black enamel. But under Tsar Peter the Great (1682-1725), who...
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Peter Ustinov great family, acting, writing.
Peter Ustinov's great-grandfather Moritz Hall was Jewish refugee from Kraków and later a Christian colleague of German missionaries in Ethiopia. Peter’s paternal grand-father was a Russian...
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Waddesdon Manor: fine Rothschild art
Waddesdon was a typical village in Aylesbury Buckinghamshire. The medieval church in its centre reminds the town of its history that dates back to the times before the Norman conquest in 1066....
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great Victorian food market - Leadenhall
If locals and tourists had to select the four most famous markets of London, they would probably be Leadenhall, Billingsgate, Smithfield & Spitalfields. In particular, people know the market at...
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Medieval travellers were quite like us
Our perception of medieval Europe is of a confined world in which people rarely travelled beyond their own locality, and when they did it was for religious reasons. But Paul Oldfield asked us to...
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Scott sisters: Australia's natural history art
Thank you to the Australian Museum Sydney for the history and to The Guardian for the images.Alexander Scott ((1800-83) was part of a large and influential family that migrated to Australia from...
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Churchmen sparked Lisbon's pogrom in 1506
Jews had inhabited Iberia for centuries. By the 1400s, Old Jews were thriving in Portugal’s best trading, commercial and intellectual centres. It was only when Spain’s Queen Isabella & King...
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Masterpieces Musée d’Orsay, Paris
In 1900 the Exposition Universelle drew thousands of art lovers to Paris, many arriving by train at the new Gare d’Orsay. Opened in 1986 and located on the Left Bank of the River Seine opposite the...
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tragic early death of Prince Albert
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1819-61) came from a small German state whose ruling family married into many European royals; in 1840 he married Victoria, his first cousin. The Queen came to...
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Saving Jewish orphans Ochberg 1921
I was fascinated by Isaac Ochberg(1879–1938) who was born in Uman in Russia/now Ukraine. With thousands of other Russians, the Ochbergs went to South Africa in 1894 where Isaac became a successful Cape...
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Leonard Cohen: the mystical roots of genius.
Everyone in Australia knows I've always been a Leonard Cohen fan, and last year my best birthday present was the new book Leonard Cohen The Mystical Roots of Genius by Harry Freedman (Bloomsbury). Good...
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UK's 1st female parliamentarian: Nancy Astor
American Nancy Langhorne (1879-1964) was born in Virginia, daughter of a wealthy railroad entrepreneur. In the 1890s Nancy and her sister Irene were enrolled in a finishing school in New York where...
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young Russians & 1917 Revolution
Andy Willimott wrote an excellent journal article on a generation of young Russians who embraced new ideals of socialist living. I have added my own family’s experience in this amazing era.Communist...
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A great Wool Museum, Geelong.
Sheep arrived in Geelong in 1832, before it was proclaimed a town in 1838. When it was developing as a Victorian port, Australia was still a series of separate colonies which levied customs duties on...
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Tom Keating: the most moral art faker?
This is the strangest Faked Art story I've ever seen. Tom Keating (1917–84) was born into a poor London family. His father worked as a house painter, and barely made enough to feed the household. At...
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