History Posts

Happy Sunday!   This week’s reading whetted my appetite to reflect on my first trip to Paris 30 years ago. I was delving into the French Revolution of 1789 where 231 years ago on Saturday, 12 October 1793, Marie Antoinette - former w…

Happy Sunday! One of the joys of creating the Batting the Breeze podcast and Breezer newsletter is to uncover exceptional personal stories and histories.​This week, I found myself thumbing through motivational quotations and came across this: …

Hello all Happy Sunday! As the US presidential election draws closer, the Brits watch on with fascination at the sheer scale and spectacle of the process. The political tension was evident last week as the Secret Service thwarted a second atte…

  Hello all -  Happy Sunday!   Eighty years ago on Thursday, 19 September 1944, was a day to remember for William of Orange. William of Orange the pigeon, that is. Let’s rewind a little first…I used to think that a p…

Hello all -  Happy Sunday!  ​ Staveley Road is a quiet thoroughfare in the archetypal middle-class suburb of Chiswick, on the outskirts of London. No. 1, Staveley Road is located towards one end, approximately halfway between Chiswic…

Hello all -  Happy Sunday!   One of my many spontaneous COVID-19 projects involved obtaining Australian citizenship to complement, not replace, my British status. My father was a fair dinkum Aussie from Melbourne. COVID extra time ha…

Hello all - Happy Sunday!   I popped up to London on Wednesday with my youngest son to attend a couple of appointments. Since it was the day after the new Parliament sat for the first time following last week’s elections, we decided…

Hello all -  Happy Sunday!   A couple of weeks ago I mentioned my recent trip to London. I  walked the tourist route around Whitehall, Parliament Square and down to Buckingham Palace.  During that trip, I also popped into S…

Hello all -  Happy Sunday!   This week is the birthday of Liz Truss, born 26 July 1975 - you remember her? Liz was UK Prime Minister for a blink of an eye and then she was gone. In September 2022 she replaced the ousted Boris Johnson…