THE BRITISH ARE COMING! THE BRITISH ARE COMING! Well, ok, it’s just me. And I’m actually half-French… But anyway, it gives me enormous pleasure to announce that A MILLION YEARS IN A DAY will be published in the USA on the 21st June 2016 by Thomas Dunne Books! To pre-order your copy of the newly updated…
Read more...Hi! Before you start reading my blog on the history of periods, I’m excited to say that my funny history book A MILLION YEARS IN A DAY : A CURIOUS HISTORY OF DAILY LIFE, FROM THE STONE AGE TO THE PHONE AGE is available around the world in 10 languages. Check out the reviews on Amazon or GoodReads to…
Read more...This recent survey by the Historical Writers Association has declared Henry VIII the “worst monarch in history”. I, like many historians on Twitter, find this a fairly ridiculous thing to state – not least because what is being measured when we say “worst”? Is it a moral question, or one of political success? And is…
Read more...I was recently asked in this interview to give my top writing tips for budding bloggers and history writers. I don’t profess to know anything at all, and there are much better people to ask, but, based on the fact I’ve read thousands of books, I thought I’d have a crack at a vaguely amusing…
Read more...One day in the future, when we are wizened and grey, we may look back on our lives and regale our great-grandkids with the Kodak moments that shone like beacons in our own personal biography – our nervous first kiss, our first passionate love affair, the excitement of passing the driving test, the joy of…
Read more...Hello, you look nice today. Have you done something new with your hair? No, seriously, it really suits you. Anyway, the reason you’re here is hopefully because you enjoyed my book and perhaps want to know more about some of the things I mentioned? I really hope that’s the case, because that’s the raison d’etre for my entire…
Read more...So, the Richard III reburial, eh? Let’s be honest, who among us expected that the first televised funeral of a British monarch, that we would see in our lifetimes, would be that of a man who died five centuries ago? I’m pretty sure we all would have bet the house on our beloved nonagenarian Queen…
Read more...When I was a boy, in the hazy days of the early 90s, Jeremy Clarkson would appear on my telly, clad almost entirely in denim, leaning against mid-range Nissan saloons and talking about clutches. This was a worthy purpose, I surmised. At that age, like many boys, I found the pantheon of differing cars on…
Read more...Thousands of years ago in the frosty depths of the Last Ice Age, with each cool breath lingering wispily under their noses, people we might call Ug and Nug sat in dimly lit caves, ensconced from the perils of the outside world. At some point they looked at those barren cave walls and decided to scribble…
Read more...THE HISTORY OF ALCOHOL: BEER OR WINE? We Brits are traditionally beer drinkers, though our middle class aspirations have seen us increasingly switch to wine instead. But how did these two drinks come to dominate our culture? Let’s go back to the beginning. In the Bronze Age, wine and beer were considered the gifts of…
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