Amberley Blog

Glasgow has a reputation as a city of slums. The reality was far from this popular image. While there were substantial areas of poor housing the creation of fit housing was always to the fore in Glasgow. These are some of the measures taken to alleviate the problem. Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, visited Glasgow in 1707 and...

One of Shakespeare’s most enduringly popular plays is Henry V. Indeed Henry appears as a main character in three plays, although in the first two his star is undoubtedly eclipsed by the fat knight, Falstaff. Despite the fact that Shakespeare was writing some 180 years after the death of his subject, Henry’s story had never been allowed to fade from...

Anyone wishing to write a screenplay for a film or TV drama to rival Game of Thrones might do well to look towards the lovely Suffolk county town of Ipswich. Suffolk has a reputation for the tranquil beauty of its rural landscape and unspoilt coastline, and of course, for the most famous end-product of its agriculture: beer. If you live...

As a post Second World child my first eight years of existence were spent without a television and largely without regular access to a motor car. Radio and cinema was a big influence, but real-life experience and the printed word were the vehicles for much information or imaginative entertainment. Life in a suburb of the City of Bath revolved around...

Dragon’s Blood and Willow Bark (Amberley Publishing April 2015) was the title of my original medieval medicine book. I chose the title to illustrate and contrast the use of both mystical and natural treatments in the middle ages and to consider the efficacy of these remedies. Willow bark had been used since ancient times to relieve inflammation and reduce fevers...

The Battle of Jutland, fought on 31 May 1916, has long been regarded as an indecisive stalemate with neither side willing to risk the safety of its capital ships. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Jutland was actually the most significant action fought during the four long years of war, either on land or on the ocean...

Whenever one reads stories about the fire brigade in children’s books and comics, and indeed in some historical books on the subject there was invariably mention of the romance of the steam fire engine. There was the  thrill of seeing  two powerful fire brigade horses galloping along the streets with the firemen hanging on for dear life and shouting the...

I was researching in the Brynmor Jones Library in Hull, digging into the background for a biography I was writing on George Grossmith, the singer and writer, when there was a large folder of photographs and I could see from the front cover that it was intriguingly entitled: 'Prison Photographs.' As I am primarily a crime historian, how could I...

Exploring the evidence that Sir Henry Neville was Shakespeare. In science knowledge develops through experiment and evidence. Starting with questions and doubts, new hypotheses are developed and their predictions are tested against experimental experience. This research approach often generates new evidence that corroborates or refutes previous ideas and so increases the probability that a new hypothesis is correct or indicates...

In an extract from his new book Forgotten Science: Strange Ideas from the Scrapheap of History, SD Tucker explores some of the strangest tales from Soviet science, including Stalin’s alleged attempts to create a race of invincible monkey-soldiers to serve in the Red Army. They tried to make a Monkey out of you The phrase ‘human guinea-pig’ is often used...