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Labels in History, or Why Historians don’t Complete Arguments with ‘QED’
When this post goes ‘live’, I’ll be heading north to spend a week shut away on my own, brainstorming the plot of ‘Quinton 6′. (The first draft of book 5, The Battle of All The Ages, is currently out...
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Labels in History: Corrections and Clarifications
Sam McLean, this week’s guest blogger, has asked me to post this clarification. I’m happy to oblige. *** This blog post is not intended as a criticism of either Kings College London, the Department of...
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Arfur Minute
A confession: I very nearly became an Arthurian. Before you all run off into the hills, screaming hysterically, bear with me for a few minutes. Remember that I originally come from Carmarthenshire -...
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Oliver Who?
Apparently there was an ‘American vs British’ hashtag on Twitter recently. I missed the ‘debate’ itself – too many things to do, such as having a life – but according to a summary that I came across,...
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The Good Old Days
I don’t often produce two blogs in a week, let alone in a day, but I couldn’t let this one pass. Apropos of the current spat about History teaching between Michael Gove and, well, pretty well everybody...
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The Birth, Death and Rebirth of a Royal Dockyard
(Cross-posted on my Welsh naval history site , britanniasdragon.com) I spent the weekend in Pembroke Dock, attending the launch events for the bicentenary of the foundation of the Royal Dockyard in...
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All For One
Oh no, you’re thinking, here we go again: ‘grumpy old author goes off on one about yet another new TV series with a historical setting’. Well, ok, The Musketeers does fulfill quite a few of the cliches...
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Going Dark
This will be the last post for a few weeks, unless [a] I get particularly worked up about some idiocy or other and decide to rant about it, [b] something really interesting emerges from my research, or...
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Last Invasions
It’s nice to be back after a break of a few weeks, during which I’ve made great progress on ‘Quinton 6′ – nearly 30,000 words written already! It’s been quite an eventful time, too. I gave a talk at...
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Cover Story
I’m delighted to be able to headline this week’s post by revealing the cover of the new Quinton novel, The Battle of All The Ages, which is number five in the series and is due to be published in the...
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What Writers Can Teach Museum Curators
‘Nothing!’ cries an enraged legion of museum curators, their spectacles quivering with righteous fury. ‘Nothing at all, you idle coffee-addicted scribblers of words that nobody wants to read! Adverbs,...
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Finding Uncle Dai
(Please scroll down to the very bottom for a very important announcement about forthcoming posts! Meanwhile…) If you can’t beat them, join them. Britain seems to have gone overboard for the World War...
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The Fleets at the Battle of Beachy Head, 1690: Part 1
I’m delighted to welcome Frank Fox as my guest blogger, both this week and next! Frank’s name will be well known to many students and readers of naval history. A former Supply Officer in the US Navy,...
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The Fleets at the Battle of Beachy Head, 1690: Part 2
Guest blogger Frank Fox presents the second half of his important new assessment of the fleets that fought in the Battle of Beachy Head. Next week, I’ll be reporting on the Oxford Naval Conference in...
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Appy Days
I blogged about some of the idiosyncracies of naval history conferences a few months ago. Last week, I was able to attend a particularly important example of the genre, a conference held at All Souls...
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Kernow bys vyken!
Cornwall has had something of a mixed week. On the plus side, there was the government’s decision to grant it national minority status. Now, whatever the legalistic merits or demerits of such status,...
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Hoisting the Ensign
I’m delighted to be able to announce the publication, on 1 June, of Ensign Royal, the first Matthew Quinton adventure outside the main series and the first to be written specifically for e-formats....
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The Death of the Naval Pub
MPs, newspaper columnists and bloggers galore have sounded off on the subject of the reasons for the decline of the British pub. No doubt sociologists aplenty have written, or are writing, weighty...
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Dutch Ships at the Battle of Beachy Head as Related to the Normans Bay Wreck
This week, I’m delighted to welcome an illustrious trio of guest bloggers – my friends and colleagues in the field of Restoration naval history, Frank Fox, Peter Le Fevre and Richard Endsor. Frank, the...
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Lights, Camera, Fireship Attack
There’s going to be a film about 17th century naval history. Don’t get too excited: it’s not Gentleman Captain: the Movie, more’s the pity. Instead, the Dutch are making a film about their great...
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