March 30, 1981. John Hinckley Jnr fires at President Ronald Reagan, wounding him and his press secretary James Brady, Washington police officer Thomas Delahanty, and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy severely. President Reagan survived thus breaking the famous Tecumseh Curse....
Tory Historian wishes Lord Tebbit, possibly the only active Conservative politician who can be called great, a happy 80th birthd...
Searching through second-hand detective stories in Charing Cross Road Tory Historian found a collection of Lillian de la Torre's stories about Dr Johnson, entitled The Detections of Dr. Sam: Johnson. Tory Historian has, in the past, expressed reservations about some historical detective stories but the first two stories of Ms de la Torre's collection, The Tontine Curse and The Stroke of Thirteen deserve nothing but praise if only for the...
Tory Historian has always had a soft spot for John Julius Norwich, the extraordinarily prolific yet seemingly relaxed and charming historian of Venice and the Byzantine Empire as well as talented anthologizer. Here is a delightful interview with him on occasion of his new book, the history of the Popes. It is going on TH's list immediate...
Tory Historian has found two blogs that might be of interest to readers and they both seem to be authored by the same person except that both seem to have a number of other bloggers. In fact, one on Georgian London seems to be more of a magazine than a blog with the number of guests writing about their interests. Lucy Inglis, expert on Georgian London and particularly interested in artisans and immigrants to London in that period, is also the blogger in residence at the Museum of London, a very fine place that Tory Historian...
Tory Historian has been catching up with some important reading and found among the unread pile this article by Nigel Lawson (now Lord Lawson of Blaby), former Chancellor of the Exchequer and present-day campaigner against the intellectual terrorism of some climate scientists.The title, borrowed from a certain well-known if over-hyped film, is Five Myths and a Menace. The five myths Lord Lawson demolishes are: Myth number one is that economics...
It is not entirely clear to Tory Historian why International Women's Day, ignored in Britain since beginnings a century ago, should now be celebrated across the land. It is, however, satisfactory to know that March 8 is also the anniversary of Queen Anne's ascension to the throne after the death of her brother-in-law, William III, after a hunting accident. He was thrown from his horse who had stumbled into a mole's burrow. William's collar...
Tory Historian finished The Diary of a Country Parson, the very much shortened version of Parson Woodforde's voluminous diary. The elegant little tome in The World's Classics series of Oxford University Press reminds one of the small eighteenth century volumes that readers carried in their coat pockets or reticules. It is such a pity that financial considerations prevent the publication of long books in several small volumes. It would be a good deal easier to read Andrew Roberts's magisterial biography of Lord Salisbury if it...
