Archive for the ‘History’ Category
American presidents (7): Bill Clinton
August 9th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
The final session of my City Lit course on post-war US presidents covered two: the elder Bush and Clinton. This session saw a return of the lecturer Paul Hadjipieris who had previously covered Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. He is a personable and able lecturer and we all learned a lot. Bill Clinton was the […]
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American presidents (6): George H W Bush
August 8th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
The final session of my City Lit course on post-war US presidents covered two: the elder Bush and Clinton. This session saw a return of the lecturer Paul Hadjipieris who had previously covered Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. He is a personable and able lecturer and we all learned a lot. George H W Bush […]
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American presidents (5): Ronald Reagan
August 6th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
This week, I was back at the City Lit to resume the course on post-war American presidents. Our lecturer this time was Mark Bedford and we looked at Ronald Reagan who was the 40th president and served from 1981-1989. He took us through Reagan’s ascent to the White House as well as his two terms as […]
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“Hard Choices” (4): “Gaza: Anatomy Of A Cease-fire”
August 1st, 2014 by Roger Darlington
The headline “Gaza: Anatomy Of A Cease-fire” could easily be from a news article on the cease-fire announced today between Israel and Hamas. In fact, coincidentally it is the title of a chapter I have read today in “Hard Choices”, the memoir of Hillary Clinton’s four years as US Secretary of State. Clinton assumed her role […]
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How, 300 years ago today, a German princeling became the British monarch
August 1st, 2014 by Roger Darlington
He was 52nd in line to the British throne. He was the Elector of Hanover. Although he was fluent in German. French, Dutch, Italian and Latin, he could barely understand English. So how come, 300 years ago today, the British Parliament invited Georg Ludwig to become our King? It had everything to do with the […]
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American presidents (4): Jimmy Carter
August 1st, 2014 by Roger Darlington
This week, I was back at the City Lit to resume the course on post-war American presidents. For Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, our lecturer was Paul Hadjipieris (his parents are Cypriot and his wife is American). His approach was rather different from the lecturers on Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. He focused very much […]
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American presidents (3): Gerald Ford
July 30th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
This week, I was back at the City Lit to resume the course on post-war American presidents. For Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, our lecturer was Paul Hadjipieris (his parents are Cypriot and his wife is American). His approach was rather different from the lecturers on Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. He focused very much […]
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Did Salieri kill Mozart?
July 27th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
In 1979, there were the first performances of a play by Peter Shaffer called “Amadeus” which postulated that Antonio Salieri drove Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an early death or even poisoned him. I did not see the play but I did view the 1984 American film “Amadeus” directed by Miloš Forman [see my review here]. […]
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American presidents (2): Richard M Nixon
July 24th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
This summer, the City Lit in central London is running a series of evening courses with a session on most of the various post-war US presidents. I missed the one on Kennedy but have joined the course this week with the session on Lyndon B Johnson, about whom I have done a blog posting. Last […]
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American presidents (1): Lyndon B Johnson
July 23rd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
As a portfolio worker, I have reached the point in the year when many of the organisations with which I work stop having meetings for a month or two because of the summer period. So, for the next few weeks, I’ll be reading books, seeing films, and going on short courses. This summer, the City […]
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