Category Archives: Uncategorized

I’ve just finished reading Bruce Lockhart’s autobiography. It’s a moderately entertaining read, but it is remarkable for what it doesn’t say. As a witness to great events as the unofficial British representative in Moscow during 1918 he was uniquely placed … Continue reading →

As part of the colonial history theme I’ve been reading Barbara Crossette’s ‘Great Hill Stations of Asia’. Like me, she has been charmed by Beth Ellis’s An English Girl’s First Impressions of Burmah… and was equally puzzled about Beth’s referring … Continue reading →

I came across this little snippet this morning: For a BBC program in 1954, Sir Mortimer Wheeler tasted a reconstruction of the Tollund Man’s last supper, which turned out to be a tasteless mush. This led him to announce: “I believe … Continue reading →

I was idly surfing the web the other day and I came across a report in the Irish Times where the Prime Minister admitted erroneously claiming that Lenin had visited Ireland in the company of Michael Collins. Lenin of course … Continue reading →

Have you ever tried to buy envelopes recently? It’s a lot harder than you would expect. I’ve written before about the death of the letter, but this took me by surprise. I needed to but some plain envelopes. Most times … Continue reading →

As I’ve said before, one of the defining features of the British colonies in South East Asia was their small population size compared to the local population. For example in 1911 the European population of KL was under a 1000 … Continue reading →

In the course of my background reading about things colonial including the Proudlock murder I kept coming across the name Bruce Lockhart. You don’t forget a name like that – and a couple of minutes with wikipedia shows him to … Continue reading →

As part of my background reading about Myanmar, which is rapidly turning into an informal unstructured study of British colonialism in Burma and South East Asia I’ve been reading, end enjoying immensely, Beth Ellis’s An English Girl’s First Impressions of … Continue reading →

A few days ago I tweeted a link to Mary Kilcline Cody’s work on the Ethel Proudlock case in colonial Malaya. (There’s also an earlier news item for the curious) The case has everything, obsession with status, high drama, murder, … Continue reading →

Urban foxes are well known in the UK. On visits to London I’ve seen foxes out in the daylight in London playing along the railway line that runs out to Hampton Court. But Canberra? We know there are foxes about … Continue reading →