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1920s fashions - more than just flappers
Fashion in the 1920s was written by Jayne Shrimpton, to be published by Shire Publications in April 2014. The books says that the 1920s ushered in drastic changes; this happened as fashion abruptly...
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The legendary Chelsea Hotel, New York
"I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotelyou were talking so brave and so sweetgiving me head on the unmade bedwhile the limousines wait in the streetThose were the reasons and that was New Yorkwe were...
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A lost Faberge treasure, now found
It will come as a surprise to no-one who reads this blog that I love Faberge art objects. Now we hear an amazing story. A London antique dealer says a gold ornament bought by an American scrap-metal...
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Camus, Sartre and de Beauvoir
In this blog, I normally only write the history of people I know well, having already admired their books, paintings, architecture or music. Yet my sole contact with Albert Camus came via his...
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Jewish Russian ethnography 1911-1920 by S. Ansky
In The Story of the Jews with Simon Schama, shown on tv by the BBC, there were evocative, informative photos in the Pale of Settlement. I think this tv programme is excellent but unfortunately Schama...
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Arcadian Adelaide - too much church, not enough humility
Thistle Anderson was born in 1878 to Scottish parents who migrated to Melbourne when she was a young lass. She joined JC Williamson’s touring theatre company which travelled to Adelaide in 1900. Then...
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French Deco architecture in Shanghai between the wars
The first important modern European architect in Shanghai might have been László Hudec. After being a soldier in WW1, he moved to Shanghai in 1918 and opened his own practice in 1925. Hudec designed...
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Museum of Oliver Cromwell: 17th century hero or villain?
Who in their wildest nightmares thought that there would ever be a civil war in England? Who believed that a British king would ever be executed on the lawful orders of 59 judges? Who envisaged that...
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A history of the Papacy moving to France. To France??
In the book A History of God, Karen Armstrong showed how, in the history of the major monotheistic traditions, the idea of God evolved over time. Of course everything has a history.. but I had never...
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San Francisco - before, during and after the 1906 earthquake
My favourite spot in San Francisco is Ghirardelli Square, created when an Italian chocolatier moved to California in 1848 to pursue the gold rush. Later his wife joined him in San Francisco and soon...
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Archibald Ramsay, the Right Club and British Fascism
In reviewing the television film Churchill & The Fascist Plot (History Channel), I loved the era, the historical records accessed and the connection to my other posts on late 1930s Britain....
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Was Archibald Knox the finest Art Nouveau designer in Britain?
Art Nouveau in Britain evolved out of the already established Arts and Crafts movement. Founded in 1861 by English designer William Morris, the Arts and Crafts movement emphasised the importance of...
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Dining out in Victorian style - Ritz and Escoffier
Lyricist WS Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan, under the patronage of the enterprising impresario/hotel company president Richard D'Oyly Carte, wanted the good times of Comic Opera to...
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Camille Pissarro's painting of Montmartre: a record at auction
The Impressionist artists were irreversibly split over the Dreyfus Affair from 1894 on, the crisis that split all of France. Monet, Pissarro, Signac and Vallotton, as well as art critics Mirbeau and...
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The Jewish agricultural settlements of Argentina since 1880
After Argentina gained independence from Spain in 1816, European emigration to this large South American nation increased. Argentina's 1853 constitution guaranteed religious freedom, and the country...
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Napoleon's island idyll on Elba 1814-15
Elba is an island of 12,000 inhabitants in the Mediterranean, only 20 km off the Tuscan coast. Because of its steep geography, the largest town of Portoferraio requires some vigorous walking. The town...
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Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his literary influence
I spent my 1966 Gap Year abroad, largely with young, socialist, passionate South American students. Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927-2014) was soon to be their hero...so naturally I too wanted to read his...
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Victor Lustig - the world's most hopeful swindler?
I could not quite believe the story of a London City councillor, Ivan Luckin, who was stuck with a bridge over the Thames that did not work well. But the story was true - he really did market London...
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Royal and noble affairs for an Australian country girl - Sheila Chisholm
In preparing for the book Sheila: The Australian Beauty Who Bewitched British Society by Robert Wainwright (2013), I had to ask myself if I wanted to read about cashed up young women from the colonies...
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New Amsterdam - New York
Henry Hudson was an experienced and busy English seaman. Firstly he had been commissioned by the English merchants in the Muscovy Company in 1607; he was to find a north west passage to China via a...
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