humour
-
… to know whether to take certain images at face value. Although we have often been told that snooker was actually invented in India during the late Victorian era, here is Phillip II with a cue in hand. Furthermore, the cue extension known as a “swan-neck” must surely have been named after Harold II’s wife.…
-
We’re all accustomed to the wonderful gargoyles adorning our churches, abbeys and cathedrals, illuminations on manuscripts and the beautiful carvings on misericords, but sometimes they are truly amusing. On this occasion the apparently comedial figures are pigs playing the bagpipes. Yes, really. And not only in Scotland, I hasten to point out, because bagpipes are…
-
Well, the Penny Dreadfuls, a comedy group, may only be having fun and poking fun at Shakespeare’s Richard, but they’ve actually come closer to the truth than may be realised. Their version of Richard is more accurate than the Bard’s parody!
-
A caricature is putting the face of a joke on the body of a truth–Joseph Conrad If Joseph Conrad was correct (and I believe he was), whatever could someone in the late 15th c have been trying to tell us about Henry VII in this amusing manuscript doodle? Especially as it came from the Archbishop’s…
-
Dismal Sewage
“Lambert Simnel”, “The Last White Rose”, alleged homosexuality, Charles II, Croyland, de la Pole family, Defoe, Desmond Seward, Eleanor of Aquitaine, howlers, Jacobites, Lord Derwentwater, misogyny, Moll Flanders, More, Nell Gwynne, religious persecution, Richard I, Richard III, spell check, von PoppelauThey say every writer should find a niche. Unfortunately, certain ‘popular historians’ seem to have leapt onto ‘gimmicks’ than a niche and write all or most of their books in similar vein, often to the detriment of their work and a growing lack of credibility with each further tome. A trend amongst several notable authors…
-
In the late 1930s it became fashionable for railways to “streamline” steam locomotives. The Great Western Railway could not be bothered to do a proper job, but as a gesture towards the trend modified one of their existing locomotives to the incredibly ugly condition seen above. The engine chosen? King Henry VII. Clearly someone…
-
No words are needed, I think! Except to say that I doubt if Starkey and Schama ever see themselves in this light!
-
A ‘new’ late 16th century portrait of Richard III has recently emerged and gone on display at Hever Castle, home of the Boleyn family–and with it appeared the not-so-cuddly figure of the perennially grumpy and bombastic Tudor historian, David Starkey. Since he is not an art expert, the reason why he was commenting is slightly…
