Archive for the ‘History’ Category
The Battle of Britain (1): the opening day
July 10th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Seventy years ago today, the Battle of Britain began: the struggle between the German Luftwaffe and the British Royal Air Force to control the skies over south-east England. The pilots of the time did not know that this period would be called the Battle of Britain; still less it they know that this day would […]
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The Don Pacifico affair
July 3rd, 2010 by Roger Darlington
I was at a dinner party this weekend and met a lovely couple. He was a management consultant and Greek, while she was a lecturer in modern history and Jewish. The odd way that my mind works put this information about them together and came up with a memory of a school history lesson that […]
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Korea: the unfinished war
June 25th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Seventy years ago today, my parents were celebrating my second birthday and North Korea commenced the invasion of South Korea. It is astonishing how little people today know about the Korean War. It lasted three years and, in territorial terms, finished exactly as it had started with the 38th parallel dividing the two Koreas. Technically […]
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Speaking about the war
May 5th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
My wife Vee is a twin and her twin sister Mari is a member of the Bognor Hotham Rotary Club. Months ago, Mari suggested to the Club that I speak about their father, who was a night fighter ace in the Second World War, since I wrote a biography of him which was published in […]
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Ever heard of Lollardy?
April 24th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
During my three-week trip to China, I read all 650 pages of the novel “Wolf Hall” by Hilary Mantel [my review here]. The book is a brilliant evocation of life in England in the early 16th century which was a time of terrible intolerance and religious persecution. An account is given of the burning alive […]
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How MI5 bugged Number 10
April 19th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
In the 1970s, I spent four years working in Government under the premierships of Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan. It was widely known that Wilson feared that MI5 was plotting against his administration but most of us though that he was being paranoid. Now, in this story, we learn that since 1963 the secret service […]
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“I sat on Mao’s knee”
March 19th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Not me – a friend of mine. I’m off to China in a few days time and was talking about this trip to a friend today when she told me this fascinating little story. On 1 October 1959, China celebrated the 10th anniversary of its independence. At that time, my friend was a young girl […]
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“The Forgotten Highlander”
February 26th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Even now, there are new stories about the experience of those affected by the Second World War. This account of suffering by a British prisoner of war with the Japan is horrendous. As Alistair Urquhart rightly states: “Germany has atoned. Young Germans know of their nation’s dreadful crimes. But young Japanese are taught nothing of […]
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Remembering Sir Keith Park
February 22nd, 2010 by Roger Darlington
The Battle of Britain was a seminal time in the history of the island and a turning point in the Second World War. Some 3,000 pilots took to the skies with the Royal Air Force and one of them was my wife’s father the Czech Karel Kuttelwascher. The leader of the RAF’s 11 Group at […]
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The Glorious Revolution
February 9th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Three Labour Members of Parliament are being prosecuted over the alleged fraudulent claiming of expenses and – rightly – they are being criticised for suggesting that they will claim that they cannot be prosecuted because of Parliamentary privilege. Of course, there is such a notion – an important one – of Parliamentary privilege but most […]
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