November is National American Indian Heritage Month in America. For regular readers, you may not be surprised that I decided to write a post dedicated to that. Despite living in the East Midlands of England, I have always had a genuine interest in the plight of the Native Americans, perhaps feel some guilt towards the cultural appropriation that they were forced to endure. For that reason, I felt it appropriate to share the story of Zitkala-Sa, which means Red Bird in English, who was an influential Native American activist. Her story is a powerful one and I feel that I would have been there w ..read more

Most people have heard of Florence Nightingale, the legendary ‘lady with the lamp’ who is seen as the mother of modern nursing after her efforts to improve the treatment of wounded soldiers during the Crimean War (1853-1856). Despite the fact that Florence came from my native Derbyshire, she in fact isn’t my favourite Crimean War nurse, that is in fact Mary Seacole, a black Jamaican woman who funded her own trip and established the British Hotel near the frontline in the Crimea to help assist with the injured, after being turned away by the British War Office. Mary Seacole’s has, quite rightly ..read more

October is Black History Month and since running this blog, I have always tried to write at least one post to celebrate this. This time, I would like to share a story I recently discovered about friendship between Tony Small, an escaped slave, who became a servant and confidante to Edward Fitzgerald, the fifth son of the Duke of Leinster. Unlike most master and servant relationships, it appears that this was more like a genuine friendship between the pair, but their meeting was a rather unusual one. Edward Fitzgerald was a lieutenant in the 19th Regiment of Foot during the Revolutionary War in ..read more

Some of you regular readers will have noticed by now that I have a passion for the Georgian period, especially the later part known as the Regency Period, which is most closely associated with the life of Jane Austen. For the last couple of years, I have been taking part in the Jane Austen Festival in Bath, alongside my family. We have tried to get tickets for the balls they hold at the world famous Bath Assembly Rooms, but as I’m sure you can imagine, they are the hottest tickets in town, with them selling out within twenty minutes of going on sale this year. Surely everyone deserves to go to ..read more

During a recent guided tour of the Bishop’s Palace in Wells, I came across Thomas Ken, bishop during the last year of Charles II’s reign and during the ill fated reign of Charles’ Catholic brother, James II. From what I learnt, he was a very benevolent man, someone who cared for the poor and stood up for what he believed was right and honourable, even if he didn’t necessarily agree with another’s viewpoints. I feel he was a man I would have got on well with personally, but I felt his story was one that should be told, particularly his dealings with the poor. Thomas was born in Hertfordshire in ..read more

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the blog, so I want to take the opportunity to thank each and every person who has read, followed, shared and enjoyed the content I’ve been producing over that time. It really means a lot to me that my blog’s readership has grown so much in that time and that people genuinely seem to love what I write about. I love sharing all that I can about history with you all, so I hope I can keep it up for many more years to come. Little did I think in 2018 when I set this blog up after I graduated from my masters and missed the feel of historical research, that in Fe ..read more

Before I start this post, I would like to thank everyone for their really kind comments since my announcement a few weeks ago of my biography of Anthony Woodville now being on preorder. The support I’ve received has been lovely and really positive, so thank you to everyone who’s sent their support. The next few months are going to be exciting though. My next talk is once again on my research into Napoleonic Prisoners of War held in Chesterfield, a town local to where I live. If you’re a regular reader, you may have seen me mention this talk before as I have now done it a few times for local gr ..read more

Striking for better wages and working conditions is a very topical thing here in the UK at the moment, so when I came across the Spithead and Nore Mutinies of 1797 recently whilst reading a book on the idea of radicalism in the eighteenth century, it felt like a good topic to share. Naval mutiny was a serious offence and anyone found guilty was bound to be hanged for it, so what exactly made whole fleets at both Spithead and Nore continue with mutinous behaviour? In 1797, Britain had been at war with Revolutionary France for four years. The majority of government spending was geared towards wa ..read more

I am delighted to offer a very exciting update on my biography on Anthony Woodville, brother-in-law of Edward IV, entitled Anthony Woodville: Sophisticate or Schemer. I handed in the manuscript for it to the publishers, Amberley Publishers, at the end of May, with much relief considering I had to ask for an extension due to catching Covid, which made me quite ill, earlier in the year. This week it was confirmed that it is now in the editing stage, which seems a bit surreal as it is. As if that was exciting enough, I have also found that not only is the cover available, which can be seen above ..read more

When talking about attitudes towards the poor in Victorian Britain, it is essential to mention the Salvation Army, which was established in 1865 from a tent in Whitechapel, to offer practical and spiritual help to those in need, right in the heart of London’s East End. Nowadays, most people often associate the Salvation Army with their campaigns at Christmas to help the homeless, or their musical abilities. There is so much more to them as an organisation and its history is often associated with its first leader, William Booth. However, his wife, Catherine was a co-founder, alongside her husba ..read more