It was overheard, word for word, by High Street Ken at the Independent…
July 1st, 2010
'His cursed concubine'
Click here to read my review of GW Bernard’s new biography of Anne Boleyn, published a couple of weeks ago in The Spectator.
July 1st, 2010
…and then there was silence
All quiet on the blogging front, alas, as I prepare the manuscript of my new book, THE PLANTAGENETS, due for publication by Harper Press next year. However, I continue to contribute columns on the sporting world to the London Evening Standard - you can read an archive here.
June 12th, 2010
Before Jabulani
Anyone who fancies a break from the sponsor-heavy sprawl of the World Cup might enjoy Richard Sanders’ excellent history of British football. It’s called ‘Beastly Fury: The Strange Birth of British Football’. I am reading it in hardback, but it came out last year some time so is probably out in soft-cover now. Sanders starts the story proper with the Shrove Tuesday brawls of the nineteenth century, but there are a couple of mentions of the medieval game early on.
May 14th, 2010
What happens when you interview Robin Hood
There’s an extraordinary story doing the rounds in London medialand at the moment about what happened when a men’s magazine went to Australia to photograph Russell Crowe for a story that accompanies the ‘Robin Hood’ release this month.*
At home with Russell sounds like a truly terrifying place to be. As does in interview with Russell, judging by this, broadcast on Front Row recently.
* Does that sound unfairly teasing? Sorry, but if I record the version I heard here I a) won’t do it justice and b) will probably end up with a writ…. Let’s just say that it’s a cross between early Hunter S Thompson and this…
May 12th, 2010
Ridley Scott's 'Robin Hood': reviews
Not my review (I have been too busy to seek out a press screening). But here are some of the latest professional judgements. The general consensus seems to be that this is an borderline excellent, four-star movie, closer in style to Chris Nolan’s ‘Batman Begins’/'Dark Knight’ joints than the hokey camp of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
The Guardian: “This is strong stuff.” ****
Empire: “The mullet-free Robin Hood movie we’ve been waiting decades for.” ****
The Daily Telegraph: “What saves the movie, which is quite flawed but still Scott’s best in nearly a decade, is its majestic feel for the English landscape.” ***
Variety: “”Robin Hood” comes to resemble a medieval “Bourne” movie as it darts hither and yon from Nottingham to the northern coast of France”
The News of the World: “If 12th-century warfare didn’t look like this, it flamin’ well should have done.” ****
The Daily Mail: “Sir Ridley Scott makes a triumphant return to form with this magnificent epic.” ****
May 4th, 2010
The Ipswich African
Watch History Cold Case on BBC2 this Thursday evening. They’re covering this extraordinary case in forensic (literally) detail.
May 4th, 2010
Magna Carta in New York City
A volcano, of which you may have heard, recently left this author stranded in New York.
Boo hoo, I know.
Alas, flights reopened just too early for me to get along to have a look at a copy of Magna Carta, which was in town for a visit.
(Magna Carta was also stranded in New York. Don’t ask me why.)
Anyway, I am glad I have a subscription to The New Yorker, because it was that excellent magazine which reported on the exhibition. My copy arrived in London shortly after I did. Go figure, as they say across the Pond.
You can read the (rather amusing) article here.
April 8th, 2010
Moonlighting
Not at all medieval alert: One for those medievalists who also enjoy the fine world of sport. I am now writing a regular column for the London Evening Standard. You can read it online or pick up a copy of the paper outside any London Tube station of an afternoon.
