Is there any such thing as a new idea? Bryony Coombs discusses similarities in artistic expression, centuries apart.
Historians have used printed media such as books, letters, diaries, newspapers and magazines for centuries, yet now that the web has/is replacing that, the web is tomorrow’s historical resource. Relationships between historical ‘text’ sources, data and interpretation, the construction of…
Before his tragic death by self-destructive alcoholism at age 41, Brendan Behan was a celebrated Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both English and Irish. Fifty years since his death, a special issue of Irish…
By Alison Morgan ‘A New National Anthem’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley is probably one of his least known poems. Written in 1820, in the aftermath of the Peterloo Massacre, Shelley’s poem is a paean to the female queen Liberty rather…
Celebrity, publicity and authorship are common place in the 21st century and increasingly, authors are energetic in conveying their own celebrity rather than it simply being thrust upon them; it could be said there is an intimacy between authors and…
An April article in Archives of natural history gives a fascinating insight into the life of Charles Francis Adams, a young American who prepared, stuffed and mounted the skins of birds and mammals for display. It also details the early…
An Italian Renaissance polymath, most known for his notebooks and paintings, Leonardo Da Vinci is still widely considered an enigma. His birthday was today, April 15th. A recent article in Journal of Beckett Studies (Volume 22.2) wonders how much Beckett’s…