The recent attacks by Ukrainian drones on two Tu-95 bombers at the Engels Russian airfield, a fuel truck at the Dyagilevo airbase in Ryazin and an oil storage tank at the Kursk airfield have upped the ante in the war with Russia. Experts say the dron...

I have spent the last year doing a lot of historical research on slavery for my new novel "White Slaves" (390 pages) which will be published early next year. This has led me to believe that slavery is endemic to humankind just like prostitution. We h...

My original intention this week was to talk about the Domesday book and how William the Conqueror surveyed much of England and parts of Wales back to 1085. What an incredible document from Norman times and what a huge influence it had. Unfortunately,...

If you have been reading Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels, then you will remember the Forlorn Hope at the 1812 Siege of Badajoz during Britain's Peninsular war against Napoleon. Badajoz was an impregnable Spanish fortress defended by a large French f...

NEW TARGET FOR RUSSIA: THE SUWALKI GAPIf you look at the map of Eastern Europe, you will start wondering what the Kalingrad Oblast region is all about. Remember that Germany was forced to give up Kaliningrad to Stalin at the 1945 Potsdam Agreement. T...

Did you know that the secret grandson of Queen Victoria was found dead next to the train tracks in Montreal West on December 10, 1907? Henry Locock was a 39-year-old British army officer on his way to Kelowna, BC to meet his birth father, Walter Stir...

Don't you Remember,The Fifth of November,'Twas Gunpowder Treason Day,I let off my gun,And made'em all run.And Stole all their Bonfire away. (1742)Guy Fawkes Night is celebrated in Great Britain every November 5 with bonfires and fireworks displays. F...

The place is the Piazza San Firenze in Florence, Italy. A large crowd is silently gathered looking up in awe at the immense statue of David. It has taken the artist some four years to complete the seventeen foot tall statue, but the result takes your...

The last Roman legions are leaving Britain under General Magnus Maximus, that ambitious and ruthless Spaniard, who proclaimed himself Emperor of Britain and launched his bid for imperial power. For over 400 years Britain had lived under the rule...

In recent weeks I have returned to several of Gore Vidal's excellent historical novels after I read the extraordinary "Lincoln" novel several months ago and commented on it in my blog. "Burr" is a masterpiece of historical fiction about Aaron Burr's ...

In 1870, when Lt. Gen. Butler at the request of the Canadian government travelled along the North Saskatchewan River on horseback, canoe and later dog sled from Winnipeg to Rocky Mountain House west of Edmonton, he carried with him a supply of smallp...

Many of you have seen the excellent “Crown” mini-series on Netflix and are curious about Britain’s post-war economic problems which plagued the government in the 1960s and 70s. The economic costs of the war were enormous. Six years of warfare and the...

It is very frustrating to see the mob who ransacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, get up to twenty years in prison and pay huge fines, while Trump and his political cronies walk away without any charges. Many of these people are going to face a jud...

I don’t know whether any of you are fans of The Borgias television series which stars Jeremy Irons as Pope Alexander VI. I’m a big fan and have seen most of the episodes either in French or in English. In the first episode, which I saw the last week ...

This week I am finishing up my screenplay “Johnny Reb in Montreal” about the manhunt across the province of Quebec of Lt Bennett Young and his Confederate soldier friends. This is the story of the St. Albans, Vermont raid and the trial in Montreal of...