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Orkney and Shetland Road Trip, Part 4
Shetland has less naval heritage than Orkney, but it still has a substantial amount. During the 17th century, the islands were of vital economic importance – but to the Dutch, not the British. Vast...
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Orkney and Shetland Road Trip, Part 5
On one level, Orkney has more heritage than it knows what to do with. Great monuments that would be major tourist attractions in the south of England sit in remote fields, virtually unknown: ‘oh look,...
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Of Kings, Car Parks and Bandwagons
After the discovery of the remains of King Richard III, it seems to be obligatory for every history blogger, Tweeter and Facebooker to have their say on the matter, so for what it’s worth, here are a...
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Pepys Show
I was going to have a week off blogging. After doing five posts in a week for the Orkney and Shetland road trip, then another extra one to mark the rediscovery of King Richard III, I thought I deserved...
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Endless Poetry
‘…this damned war: the mud, the noise, the endless poetry.’ (Lord Flashheart, Blackadder Goes Forth) There are very, very few similarities between the First World War and the Second Anglo-Dutch War...
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The Spirit of Not Dead Fred
I am not dead yet I can dance and I can sing I am not dead yet I can do the Highland Fling (‘Not Dead Fred’ from Spamalot) I’ve always been intrigued by the possibilities presented by overlaps between...
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The Cruel Sea
I spent last week in my home town of Llanelli in west Wales, visiting family, taking in some rugby, and meeting with the project team at Llanelly House. I had an update on progress – the plans for the...
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The Return of the Thirty Ships, Part 1
In the mid-1670s, [Samuel] Pepys and other members of the administration became increasingly alarmed at the navy’s numerical inferiority to the French and Dutch. In 1665, Charles II’s fleet had...
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The Return of the Thirty Ships, Part 2
Richard Endsor’s painting of the Lenox, used for the cover of the US editions of The Mountain of Gold Following last week’s post about the reappearance of the wreck of the 1678 Third Rate Anne, this...
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The Return of the Thirty Ships, Part 3
To finish off this ‘mini-series’ about the ‘thirty ships’ of Charles II’s reign, I thought I’d post a brief history of the Third Rate Hope that I wrote about twelve years ago as part of a leaving...
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Enter the Lion
Cover of the UK edition of The Lion of Midnight A short blog this week, but one that marks a big event – The Lion of Midnight, fourth of the ‘Journals of Matthew Quinton’, is due to be published in the...
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Drake’s Drum
I spent last week in Devon, doing some fieldwork and plot brainstorming for the new Quinton novel – and as I suggested in the previous post, anyone wondering why a book focusing on the Four Days Battle...
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It’s History, Jim, But Not As We Know It
Something of a light digression this week, prompted by watching the first episode of the latest glitzy quasi-historical sword ‘n’ sex epic Da Vinci’s Demons, which appears to be from very much the same...
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Squelching Back in Time
A few weeks ago, I blogged about the reappearance of the wreck of the 1678 Third Rate Anne on the beach at Pett Level near Hastings, the first time it’s been exposed for about fifteen years. Last week,...
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But I Never Read Reviews, Dahling
A confession: I’m really not much good at many aspects of the self-promotional side of being an author. OK, I enjoy blogging as it gives me an opportunity to explore issues I simply can’t cover in the...
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Mr Stark and Mr Staring
Just when you’re starting to think ‘what shall I blog about this week?’, along comes good old David Starkey and solves the problem. (Actually, in true London bus fashion his intellectual soulmate...
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Battening Down The Hatches
Last week’s post attracted the most traffic ever to this blog, and certainly generated the biggest response in terms of comments, feedback on Twitter, etc. The moral of the story seems to be that...
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Dead Admirals’ Society, Part 1
I’ve done a fair bit of travelling in the UK over the years, and invariably seek out items of naval interest wherever I am, notably the graves or monuments of naval personnel. It’s good to see that...
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Dead Admirals’ Society, Part 2
A few more memorials this week – and by popular demand (OK, that’s one of you, and you know who you are…), here are some from the seventeenth century. First of all, here’s the glorious wall monument to...
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The Proof of Sod’s Law; or, the Curse of the Killer VIPI
People sometimes ask me which I prefer writing, fiction or non-fiction. I love doing both, and both have their pros and cons, but one of the biggest differences between the two genres is that with...
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