humour
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Here’s a real giggle. Just imagine if, on that day in 1066, these little friends had turned up to interrupt the proceedings. The Battle of Hastings would definitely not gone in William the Bastard‘s favour, and we’d have kept our King Harold Godwinson. No brutal interference from across the Channel! But, alas, it didn’t happen.…
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The caption of the above illustration gives a mild flavour of what follows in this review and this one and of the BBC’s The Hollow Crown series. The reviews are the work of Hello Tailor, and really had me giggling. They’re sharp and witty, but naughty too, so be warned. They’re also the work of…
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Here’s an amusing typo: “….Earl Ranulph III in his Magna Carter gave many of Mondrem’s inhabitants, including free tenants, increased liberties which allowed them to exploit the natural landscape….” I won’t say where I found it, but it provided me with a welcome laugh. Is the author implying that Earl Ranulph was the Eddie…
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We all know that our royals have had nicknames – Longshanks, Rufus, Crouchback, Good Queen Bess, Prinny and, of course, Tricky Dicky. But HICK HEAVYHEAD????? 😲 And who was it? Richard II. Apparently because he was opposed to war when his barons wanted to swarm over to France and kick seven shades out of the…
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… 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.…
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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…
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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!
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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…
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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…
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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…
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