Category Archives: England

Remembering Journalist Paul Johnson

Posted on March 31, 2023 by Luke Ford

Conrad Black writes: * Paul Johnson: “What sustained the English during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation years, what enabled them to preserve heterodoxy in England and uphold it on the continent, what enabled them to defeat the Armada and rip open … Continue reading →

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Britain at Bay: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1938-1941

Posted on January 16, 2023 by Luke Ford

Here are some highlights of this 2020 book by professor Alan Allport: * A war fought in defence of Poland or Romania would be ‘devastating’; the independence of neither state was of any inherent vital interest to Britain, or possible … Continue reading →

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The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer

Posted on December 10, 2022 by Luke Ford

Here are some highlights from this 2008 book by David Goldblatt: * The British historian Eric Hobsbawm encapsulated this oddity when he wrote ‘The twentieth century was the American century in every way but one: sport.’ This is not exactly … Continue reading →

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The Game of Our Lives: The Meaning And Making Of English Football

Posted on December 10, 2022 by Luke Ford

Here are some highlights from this 2015 book by David Goldblatt: * Sir Richard Turnbull, the penultimate governor of Aden, told Denis Healey, then Britain’s defense secretary, that, “When the British Empire finally sank beneath the waves of history, it … Continue reading →

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Long May He Rule Over Us

Posted on October 27, 2022 by Luke Ford

Once you’ve read a few books on kings and queens, Donald Trump doesn’t seem so strange. For example, let us take King John of Magna Carta fame. Peter Ackroyd notes: “[H]e fined York and Newcastle for not affording him an … Continue reading →

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