All articles in Biography & Memoir
16th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, Military
Embed: With the world’s armies in Afghanistan
In 2007, journalist Nick Allen quit a secure job in Pakistan as a news agency writer to experience the life of foreign troops battling the Taliban in Afghanistan. Over several years he journeyed as an embedded reporter with a dozen armies, working his way through placid backwater…
16th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, History
Where did the Black Prince get his name from?
Edward, Prince of Wales and Aquitaine, Duke of Cornwall, Earl of Chester, founder knight of the Order of the Garter, hero of Crécy, victor at Poitiers, the Black Prince, died on 8th June 1376, Trinity Sunday, the feast day for which he had particular reverence. It was recorded th…
16th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, Fiction, Women in History
The lessons of Agatha Christie
As the author of nine murder mysteries who has dared follow in the illustrious footsteps of Agatha Christie, I am struck by the fact that the whodunnit ‘formula’ she invented and polished to perfection is now 100 years old. Agatha Christie wrote her first novel The Mysterious Aff…
16th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, History, Natural World
Henry ‘Birdie’ Bowers – The first Scot to reach the South Pole
In early January 1912 Henry ‘Birdie’ Bowers – to his delighted surprise – was chosen by Captain Robert Scott as a member of the five-man party which would attempt to reach the South Pole. Birdie (born in Greenock, near Glasgow, in 1883) wrote home that he was proud to represent S…
15th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
Emily Hobhouse: Pacifist and patriot
On 4 August 1914, a surge of patriotic fervour swept the nation, Germany was marching through Belgium: young men rushed into war. But not everyone was happy. Emily Hobhouse believed in her country. She believed in it as the leader that had kept the peace in Europe for a hundred y…
15th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, History
Great Scot, it’s Robert the Bruce!
At first glance, King Robert the Bruce might seem a strange choice as a colossus worthy of inclusion in pocket GIANTS, a series exploring the lives and careers of such historical luminaries as William the Conqueror, Jane Austen and Charles Darwin. Although it has been hard r…
15th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
A nursing sister on the Western Front
Nurses cared for the casualties of the First World War in Europe (on the Western and Eastern Fronts and in the Eastern Mediterranean), in the Middle East (Egypt and Palestine) and in Mesopotamia, India and Africa. The British Military Nursing Service was aided by Voluntary Aid De…
15th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, Military
A love that survived the Holocaust
In the summer of 1942 the SS has its first death camps up and running. It’s time to empty the German ghettos in Poland of every Jew who cannot be used as a work slave. In the Schiff family, William has his job, Dorothy is a licensed pharmacist, and Bronek is a healthy young male…
15th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, Women in History
Unity Mitford meets Hitler
The relationship between Unity Mitford and Adolf Hitler continues to fascinate readers even today but how did the paths of a socialite and a world leader happen to cross? For all Adolf Hitler’s obvious lust for power and theatrical political persuasion he was remarkably catholic…
15th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, History
Richard I: A mighty king or a menacing tyrant?
Ask people in the street to name one English king, and most would answer, ‘Richard the Lionheart’. Known to film buffs as ‘King Richard of the Last Reel’, he appears at the end of every Robin Hood epic as the crusader hero returning to right the wrongs suffered by his loyal subje…
15th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
A timeline of Anne Frank’s life
Anne Frank’s diary is famous around the world as an eyewitness account which gives an insight into the horrors of persecution faced by Jewish people under the Nazi regime and is now a classic of war literature. Here we present a timeline of the German girl’s life: 12 June 1929 — …
15th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, History
Henry V: Cold-hearted ruler or virtuous king?
On 9 April 1413, Henry V was crowned king of England. But how should we remember him: as a conquering hero who helped put the great into Great Britain; or a warmonger who led his country into a futile war of foreign conquest? It snowed heavily in London on the day that Henry…