It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a woman in possession of a love of history, must be in want of a blog.
A slim volume called Colloquial Persian recently came my way; a basic language primer published in 1941. The book was published at a rather fascinating political juncture. In 1941, in response to Germany's relentless eastward push into the USSR, Britain and the USSR launched a joint invasion of Iran, which was then ruled by Mohammad Reza Shah. …
Continue reading How to speak Persian like a colonial Englishman
While writing my personal statement for university applications I read a number of books by Keith Thomas, a rather distinguished early modern historian who I later found out had been a fellow at my College. His books are always readable and full (sometimes too full) of entertaining anecdotes - I still remember the story from …
Continue reading Historical portraits of people and their pets
'For my part I don’t see why men who have got wives and don’t want ‘em, shouldn’t get rid of ‘em as these gipsy fellows do their old horses...Why shouldn’t they put ‘em up and sell ‘em by auction to men who are in need of such articles? Hey? Why, begad, I’d sell mine this …
Continue reading ‘I’d sell my wife if anybody would buy her’: wife sales in England