All articles in Biography & Memoir
21st September, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, Entertainment
Alan Tomkins recalls working on Cleopatra and Dr. No
In 1961, aged 22, Alan Tomkins had just completed a three-year apprenticeship and was happily contracted to continue in the employment of the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC). However, when Tomkins heard that art director John Box, who was based over at Pinewood Stud…
16th September, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
Ask the author: Peter Hore on forgotten WWII hero Mary Lindell
Peter Hore is the author of Lindell’s List, which tells the moving story of Mary Lindell’s heroic leadership and the endurance of a group of women who defied the Nazis in the Second World War. We asked him about the inspiration behind the book, conducting research and w…
15th September, 2016 in Aviation, Biography & Memoir, Military
What became of ‘The Few’ after the Battle of Britain?
To the grateful population of post-war Britain those pilots who had fought against the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain were true heroes. They were lauded in the media of the day and became the subjects of many a film. England’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill was even qu…
17th August, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, Military
Family loyalty and deceit within the clan of Dracula
Families can be a place of safety, repose and support during hard times. Equally they can be places of danger, deceit and division. This dichotomy of succour and sedition was never better displayed than in the family histories of the clan of Dracula and in that of their Ottoman o…
2nd July, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, Military
Memoir of a Tommy: Life on the Somme
The following is extracted from Private 12768: Memoir of a Tommy, an account of life in the trenches by Private John Jackson. Jackson served on the Western Front from 1915 until the war’s end; he was present at Loos in 1917, on the Somme in 1916, in Flanders in 191…
22nd May, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
Joan of Arc: Three ways the ‘Maid of Orléans’ made history
Joan of Arc’s short yet extraordinary life has inspired writers, artists, activists, and politicians throughout time. Her story is featured everywhere from First World War song lyrics to a new musical by David Byrne. She rose to fame with her notable military victory on the battl…
11th May, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, History
Henry VIII: Avaricious, suspicious, inconstant
Henry VIII was a larger than life Tudor monarch. With time he has become a character defined by his many marriages and his portrayal on TV, rather than through his real political skills and leadership. Here author and historian Dr Susan Loughlin exam…
27th April, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, Military
Kitchener: A great man or a great poster?
When thousands of British infantrymen went over the top to engage German forces during the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916 the odds are that they were spurred on by the image of Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, the Secretary for War and Britain’s greatest soldier. With his…
14th April, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, Women in History
20 things you (probably) didn’t know about Charlotte Brontë
Whether we’ve read it at school or in later life, or seen one of the many film and television adaptations, we all know the story of the plain governess who falls in love with the stern rich master hiding a big secret in his attic. Yet, work of genius though it undoubtedly is, the…
13th April, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, Entertainment, Fiction
The beginnings of Bond
The idea of writing a spy novel had apparently been in Fleming’s mind for a decade before he finally decided to commit the book to paper. Little did he know the phenomenon he was about to create when he sat down behind his typewriter on the morning of 15 January 1952 to start the…
2nd March, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, Women in History
The Brontës: Love, jealousy & sibling rivalry
2016 was a very special year for lovers of great literature, and of the Brontës in particular, as it marked the 200th birthday of the one and only Charlotte Brontë, author of Jane Eyre, Shirley and Villette. She is of course one third of the famous Brontë sisters. Amanda White’s…
22nd February, 2016 in Aviation, Biography & Memoir
Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown & the gateway to supersonic flight
One of Britain’s most celebrated pilots and a true legend of aviation, Captain Eric Melrose ‘Winkle’ Brown, died on 21 February 2016 at the age of 97. Capt Eric Brown was the Royal Navy’s most decorated pilot, achieved several ‘firsts’ in naval aviation and held three world recor…