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Tag Archives: History

One Johnson, a player…

13 Thursday Oct 2022

Posted by la Clarina in History, Stories

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Douai Diaries, English College Reims, History, primary sources, Tom Walsingham Mysteries, William Allen

This one comes from the Douai Diaries – the rather miscellaneous manuscript books chronicling, mostly in Latin, the day-to-day life, struggles and correspondence of William Allen’s band of English Catholics exiled in France. Allen built an English college in Douai, first – and when he was thrown out of what was, back then, Hapsburg land, moved the whole establishment to Reims, where it remained from 1578 to 1593. There he continued to instruct and ordain Catholic priests to send back in England as missionaries. A good deal of martyrs, plotters and fanatics passed through the colleges of both Douai and Reims… Continue reading →

On Mikhail Gorbachev

01 Thursday Sep 2022

Posted by la Clarina in History

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History, Mikhail Gorbachev, nuclear war

What was your greatest fear as children, o Readers?

Mine, between the ages of six and twelve, was nuclear war. In the early Eighties the eventuality was a heavily discussed subject in the news and everywhere. Besides, a career officer father and a whole family very keen on international politics meant that I heard a lot of mealtime discussion of what the USSR and the States might do to each other over our heads. In addition there was a spate of fiction and nonfiction stories about it – and I had a knack for watching and reading what I should not. Oh, the nightmares I got out of watching The Day After! And I saw those Soviet leaders on the news, so hard-eyed and grim, and they rather looked like people who’d have little qualms in destroying the world… At one point I even wrote a letter** to the then General Secretary of PCUS Andropov,  explaining to him how bad it was, and could he please not bomb us? Yes well – but I must have been eight or nine. Continue reading →

“The author of a detective story…”

10 Thursday Jun 2021

Posted by la Clarina in Books, History, Scribbling

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Elizabethan espionage, History, John Bossy, The Tom Walsingham Mysteries, writing

You know those moments – those moments when a book speaks to you? When you read something that might have been written exactly for you to find it? Well, I had a rather peculiar moment of that kind, yesterday… Continue reading →

Writing Obsessions

23 Thursday Jul 2020

Posted by la Clarina in History, Scribbling, Stories

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History, meme, metafiction, obsessions, writing

Ages ago, I was dragged into one of those meme things… I must confess I always go very reluctantly about those. After all, why would anyone want to know ten things about me, or what music I have on my iPod, or where would I like to travel…

This one, though, was about writing – and when it comes to writing and reading, we’ve long established that I have no control whatever. So I did the meme on my Italian blog. It was about writing obsessions – those recurring themes one writes about again and again, intentions, obdurate passions – half guiding lights, half Trade Winds… we all have a handful of those, right? Continue reading →

Ink and Paper Jacobites

11 Thursday Oct 2018

Posted by la Clarina in Books, History, Stories

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

History, Jacobite Risings, novels, R. L. Stevenson, Rosemary Sutcliff, Scotland, Susanna Kearsley, Walter Scott

Obviously Scotland does this to me: it sends me on Jacobite tangents. Fictional tangents, mostly – because really, the moment you try a history book, the whole adventure loses much of its shine. Then again, seven decades of intermittent and unsuccessful attempts at restoring a royal line with the dubious aid of a foreign power were bound to be, on the one hand not terribly well organised, and on the other, perfect novel material… I mean: how can you have plenty of exiles headed by a handsome and charming prince, loyal clans, recurring bursts of violence, conspirations, secret messages, toasts to the King Across the Water, songs, divided families, spirited ladies, battles, and an ultimately doomed cause – and not expect an abundance of fiction? And of course, the foremost charm of the Jacobites is that of the doomed and defeated. Would we care very much about them, would we write novels, if they’d won? Continue reading →

London is a Teenager (Writing Promtps)

21 Saturday Jul 2018

Posted by la Clarina in Scribbling

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

History, Tumblr, Writing Prompts

There are heaps of writing prompt sites, out there. Really: the Net is a-swarm with them – and, under other circumstances, I might have missed Writing Prompts…

And it would have been a shame – because, you see, I came across it via this prompt…

…And, while I don’t particularly think that London is a teenager, I was definitely hooked. I followed the link, and found the site’s page of prompts for history and social studies, filled with other equally interesting and unusual prompts.

The site’s author, you see, is a teacher, and uses these prompts in the class, but they are perfect for grown-ups too, I find – all the more because it’s not so often that one finds history-geared prompts. I’m most definitely giving a few of them a try – either for my own freewriting, or with my Scribblers group…

What about you, o Readers? What is, for instance, your city? And why?

Alexandros, after all

03 Thursday May 2018

Posted by la Clarina in Poetry

≈ 4 Comments

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Alexander the Great, Alexandros, favourite poems, Giovanni Pascoli, History, poems

I’ve been musing on first favourite poems – and, after some consideration, I’ve come to the conclusion that my first favourite poem must have been Giovanni Pascoli’s Alexandros. Which is a tad strange because, as a rule, I don’t enormously like Pascoli – a late 19th/early 20th century Italian poet with a rather pathetic vein, only saved, in my admittedly biased view, by a keen interest in history.

Narrative poems, you know. Stories – the usual obsession. Continue reading →

In states unborn and accents yet unknown

19 Thursday Jan 2017

Posted by la Clarina in History, Theatre

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Brutus, Cassius, History, Julius Caesar, metadramatic, William Shakespeare

Some more Julius Caesar, do you mind?

jchowmanyagesThe fact is that, because of Shakespeare in Words, I had a special thrill when, in Act 3.I, the conspirators bathe their hands in dead Caesar’s blood – half barbaric ritual, half preparation to face the angry and upset crowds outside. Very much like actors before a play, they plan to appear with bloody hands and swords, shouting “Peace, freedom, and liberty.” Continue reading →

The Fun of the Game

16 Tuesday Aug 2016

Posted by la Clarina in Books, History

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Bryher, Historical fiction, History, research

BryherHerselfI told you about Bryher’s The Player’s Boy, didn’t I?

Well, to this lovely, melancholy novel my Paris Press edition adds a wonderful afterword, consisting of a letter that Bryher wrote to a friend to explain her fascination with Elizabethan literature and history. It’s a charming little piece about growing up, reading, cultivating one’s imagination, finding strength in literature and history, and being slightly eccentric… It’s well worth reading in its entirety.

My favourite part, though, has to be the final musing on the historian’s perspective: Continue reading →

Words in History

21 Tuesday Jun 2016

Posted by la Clarina in History, Things

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

anachronism, English language, historical thesaurus, History, Oxford Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, writing

Do you know the Historical Thesaurus of English?

HistoricalThesaurus

It’s a project of the University of Glasgow, providing information on the history of nearly 800000 words. It… Continue reading →

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