Monthly Archives: June 2015
BOOK START ANNOUNCEMENT: THE TANGLED ROSE
I will be doing some blog posts over the summer, but am taking a bit of a blog break to concentrate on writing Book Four of my Time Rose series. Tentatively entitled The Tangled Rose, it is set in Pre-WW II Germany.
TRIVIA TRAIL: SHANGRI-LA
Question: James Hilton’s famous novel, Lost Horizon, is about an idyllic, mysterious mountain community in Tibet, where people lived in peace and harmony isolated from the rest of the world. Its name was Shangri-La. Does such a place really exist? Answer: If it does, no one has found it, but there is a valley nicknamed […]
HISTORY TIDBIT: TOOTHBRUSHES
The first bristle toothbrush consisted of the hairs of wild boars inserted in a handle made of bone or bamboo, and was the brainchild of a fifteenth-century Chinese emperor.
HISTORY TIDBIT: THE BOXER REBELLION
Tzu Hsi, Empress of China, also known as the Old Buddha (even though her philosophies came nowhere near to those of that peaceful soul), hated foreigners and the influence they wielded after they turned their attention to her part of the world and acquired dominance over in lands that had once been under Chinese control. […]
HISTORIC CELEBRATION: SAINT JEAN BAPTISTE DAY
Whether it’s called “Saint Jean Baptiste Day”, “la Saint-Jean”, or the “Fête Nationale du Québec”, the feast day of Saint John the Baptist is a time for religious and patriotic festivities in the Canadian province of Québec. The religious aspect is centuries old, but the patriotic connection didn’t come about until a journalist named Ludger […]
HISTORIC BATTLE: BATTLE OF WATERLOO
Clément-Auguste Andrieux’s depiction of the Bataille de Waterloo Like the history cartoon posted on Saturday, this should have gone up last week, but here it is now. Even if you live in London, Waterloo shouldn’t just mean the station you get off at for the London Eye or the Old Vic.Two hundred years ago, the […]
HISTORY CARTOON: MAGNA CARTA
* Authorized Reproduction, Rex May: http://baloocartoons.com/ This should have gone up on the 15th but, for various reasons, didn’t. (It was a busy week.)
HISTORIC DISCOVERY: UNDERGROUND CITY OF DERINKUYU
Budding archaeologists might find this of interest. http://www.powershow.com/view4/4e7a11-YTc0O/The_underground_city_of_Derinkuyu_powerpoint_ppt_presentation
TRIVIA TRAIL: EVACUATION OF DUNKIRK
Question: What was the military code name for the WW II evacuation of Dunkirk? Answer: Operation Dynamo, taken from the Dynamo Room in British Navy Headquarters (under Dover castle). On May 23rd, 1940, German forces were gaining the upper hand against the British, who were ordered to retreat to the beaches of Dunkirk. From May […]
Time Travelling With Kids 