Introducing Miracula by Paul Chrystal
In this blog, author Paul Chrystal introduces you to the weird and wonderful world of his new book… *** [...]
The Quakers and the English chocolate industry
Both the Fry and Cadbury families were of course Quakers and, like the Rowntrees in York, one of their [...]
THE SUPERSITIOUS ROMAN: talking cows and weeping horses
Superstition was rife and omnipresent in the Roman world, presumably as much amongst women as men. Persius singles out [...]
Wayward Julia Augusti (39 BC – AD 14), daughter of the world’s most powerful man
Julia Augusti, or Julia Caesaris, was the only blood child of Octavian, later Augustus, the only child from his [...]
The Feckless Fifties
York is one of the few British cities that is blessed with authoritative, extensive and detailed research on its [...]
John Wilhelm Rowntree’s racism and the Banderlogs
Describing a mix of chocolate business and sightseeing, John Wilhelm’s Mexico diaries are fascinating, if not, at times, somewhat [...]
Witch-lite: The Bogeywoman is Coming to Get You
In ancient Greece and Rome not all aspiring witches made the grade. But all was not lost to those [...]
The opening battles of the 1st Punic war
Messana (264 BC) The First Punic War started with the battle of Messana. Messana (modern Messina) had been something [...]