National Space Centre
Some Britons I’ve spoken to claim to be unaware that their country has a National Space Centre. Well, it does and it’s in Leicester. I know this because Chris Williams took me there.
Pictures, Travel 2009
Pictures
Blogging, tweeting and podcasting, Pictures, Words
1000 tweets later
Last August I took up Twitter. I’ve just reached a thousand tweets (or will have, when this post is auto-tweeted), so it seems like an appropriate time to reflect on how useful the whole thing is. I was initially sceptical, but I find that Twitter does complement blogging very well. It’s a good place to
Blogging, tweeting and podcasting, Ephemera, Pictures
The trumpet calls
[Cross-posted at Cliopatria.] Airminded is hosting the next edition of the Military History Carnival on 15 February. Please send me suggestions for the best military history blogging since 17 January, either by email (bholman at airminded dot org), by web (here or here) or by twitter (@Airminded or tagged #mhc21). Thanks! Image source: Wikipedia.
Pictures, Travel 2009
Conwy and Llandudno
This is Conwy from the vantage point of its town walls, on a drizzly morning in early autumn. It has a population of 14000, which doesn’t really qualify it as small, but the area inside the walls is quite compact, so it feels much smaller than it should.
After 1950, Aircraft, Art, Blogging, tweeting and podcasting, Cold War, Ephemera, Pictures
Dreams of a colder war
It is officially too darn hot today: 43° C. So naturally my thoughts turn to a colder time: the 1950s. The above image (which I found as part of x-ray delta one’s wonderful Flickr stream; he also has a suitably breathless blog, ATOMIC-ANNIHILATION) would seem to be part of a public relations exercise from Convair,
Pictures, Travel 2009
From Cardiff to Conwy
After Cardiff, my next base of operations was to be Conwy (above), a small town on the north coast of Wales. But getting from south Wales to north Wales by rail is surprisingly difficult: there’s no mainline route which doesn’t spend most of its time in England, and I wanted to see some of the
1940s, After 1950, Art, Australia, Family history, Pictures
A war artist in the family
The war artist is Eric Thake (1904-1982), and the family is mine, although only in the extended sense: Thake’s grandparents, John and Sarah (née Prentice) Thake, were my great-great-grandparents. It was only a couple of weeks ago that my mother found this out. My paternal grandmother (who was born a Thake) did maintain that he
1940s, Aircraft, Art, Books, Ephemera, Pictures
Odd plane out
I recently read Sonya O. Rose’s Which People’s War? National Identity and Citizenship in Wartime Britain, 1939-1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), which is interesting on such subjects as anti-Semitism during the Blitz. But I kept being drawn back to the front cover, for a completely trivial reason. The illustration is from a 1941 poster
Pictures, Travel 2009
Swansea
After my day of fortifications I felt it was time for a change of pace, so I headed east for Swansea. The main attraction here (other than the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, of course) is the National Waterfront Museum, which explores the industrial history and technological of Wales. Of which there is quite a