Internet highlights – w/c 16th January 2022

22 01 2022

https://twitter.com/MachinePix/status/1484251568862121984





The King’s Curse – by Philippa Gregory

17 01 2022

A few years ago I read The Constant Princess, and have finally gotten around to reading the next book in the series! This book runs from 1499-1541, covering quite an expanse of time, but following the story of Margaret Pole. She was a Plantagenet, niece of both Edward IV and Richard III, and cousin of Elizabeth of York who was wife of Henry VII, and so while from a family that had been defeated by the Tudors, was highly involved in the family.

Near the start of this book she takes guardianship of Prince Arthur and his wife Katherine of Aragon, and as time goes on, Arthur passes away and Katherine becomes Henry VIII’s first wife, she becomes one of Katherine’s closest ladies in waiting.

Throughout the book are scattered updated pictures of her family tree so you can keep track of what’s going on as time passes – I always appreciate a book with diagrams!

Life is not easy for Margaret Pole; when life is good it’s very good, but when Henry throws her out of court things become much more frightening.

Henry as a child seems to be fairly delightful, but as he gains power, and time passes without him successfully producing an heir, he becomes much more unbearable. The book covers his first four marriages, and as things go on he seems to become more and more delusional, refusing to acknowledge anything bad that happens, it felt a little pertinent to our current leaders, but with a lot more hangings and beheadings, this situation was clearly much worse!

The other part of the book that felt oh so familiar was when The Sweat spread round the country, and people had to shut themselves away to stop the spread….

It was strange to read about things that were seen as awful at the time they happened, but for us are now perfectly normal: Henry declaring himself head of the church, requiring himself to be referred to as Your Majesty instead of Your Grace, and requiring churches to have the Bible in English instead of Latin.

I didn’t read this for ages because I didn’t know who Margaret Pole was, and so didn’t care much to read it, but I found it so interesting! Yes you take it all with a pinch of salt as it’s fiction at the end of the day, but these are supposedly well researched, there’s a long bibliography in the back, and so there’s definitely some things to learn from it! Looking forward to the next one now!





Internet highlights – w/c 9th January 2022

15 01 2022

Excellent signs.

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Internet highlights – w/c 2nd January 2022

8 01 2022

You may notice that this is somewhat shorter than these have been in the past. WordPress has been struggling with the number of embedded links, which means a lot of times the links are just showing as text. So I’m trying to go for something a bit shorter to see if that helps – and it should mean I’ve filtered some of the rubbish out too, win-win!

Dogs with Jobs.

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Internet highlights f/c 19th December 2021

1 01 2022
Non Covid benefits of facemasks.
Times people messed up legally.
Tiny details in sitcoms we missed.
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The Indisputable Existence of Santa Claus – by Dr Hannah Fry & Dr Thomas Oléron Evans

29 12 2021

Maths & Christmas, what more could you want?!

From predicting the Queen’s Speech using Markov Chains, to how to wrap presents using the least wrapping paper, it covers all elements of the festive season! It’s nice and accessible too, with lots of notes for further reading for those who want to fully geek out (the number of articles that seem to have been written on cooking a turkey seems to be insane!)

It’s not a heavy book, lots of chatter and humour makes it easy to read, and lots of diagrams too, so you really fly through the 150 pages!





Letters from Father Christmas – by J.R.R. Tolkien

29 12 2021

From 1920 ’til 1943, Tolkien wrote letters to his four children (over an age range of 12 years), as from Father Christmas; with shaky writing from the cold, suitable North Pole stamps and postmarks, and hand-drawn illustrations to accompany them.

In the 1976, three years after he died, his daughter-in-law compiled these into a book for people to enjoy, and last year, to mark the centenary of the first letter, this edition was published.

He shares stories of things going on in the North Pole, with his companion the Polar Bear, problems every few years from goblin attacks, and these are also covered in the illustrations. He uses these some years to explain why they might not get what they expect, but always acknowledges the letters they’ve written too.

It’s a lovely warm hug to read over the Christmas period, I saw that someone said they read one letter to their kids every night over advent as a build up to Christmas Day, which I thought was quite sweet!





Internet highlights – w/c 12th December 2021

18 12 2021

https://twitter.com/jamespenford/status/1469966127853887491
https://twitter.com/bellamackie/status/1470049405151715335 https://twitter.com/bellamackie/status/1470075061721837571
https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson_MP/status/1470107682464055296
https://twitter.com/BootstrapCook/status/1470423828979458050
https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson_MP/status/1470446567400349697
https://twitter.com/AhirShah/status/1471167509709656074
https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson_MP/status/1471191084814553095
https://twitter.com/tompeck/status/1471171045851811853 https://twitter.com/revrosejones/status/1471071767775043584
https://twitter.com/GraceMulvey1/status/1471800525834407941 https://twitter.com/hollyshortall/status/1471866092092071939
https://twitter.com/Isitchicken/status/1471930591302103045




Internet highlights – w/c 5th December 2021

11 12 2021
https://twitter.com/rhysjamesy/status/1467211875985367040
https://twitter.com/armille_/status/1467580948166623232
https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson_MP/status/1468905100043296770




Internet highlights – w/c 28th November 2021

4 12 2021
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