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Articles by Henry Elkins

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About Henry Elkins

A keen researcher of family ancestors, Henry will be reporting on the centenary of World War One. More Posts

Review: NOISES OFF (Chichester Festival Theatre)

Having never been a frequent cinema or theatre goer myself – though no stranger to these art forms I would never describe myself as a devoted fan of either – it would be presumptuous of me to assume the role of critic, which is why in this piece I purport to do no more than record my [...]

January 11, 2024 // 0 Comments

Keith Park

If you ascend the steps from The Mall to Carlton House Terrace and walk towards the Athenaeum Club you pass a statue. I doubt if many stop – and less would know what its subject achieved – but it’s fair comment that, but for him, a swastika might have been flying from the august [...]

January 7, 2024 // 0 Comments

The Lancaster Bomber

Last week there was a fascinating documentary on the Lancaster bomber on Sky. The Lancaster was the elite aircraft of Bomber Command which under Air Marshal ‘Bomber’ Harris raised German cities to rubble. This is a remarkably prescient topic given the Israeli Air Force bombing of Gaza. In [...]

November 13, 2023 // 0 Comments

The battle of the Vercors Plâteau

I have always had the greatest interest in the lesser known theatres of battle of World War Two but until I saw National Geographic’s excellent documentary on the Vercors Plâteau I had never heard of this engagement in July and August 1945. To the rallying call of Charles de Gaulle the FFI [...]

November 9, 2023 // 0 Comments

Das Boot

The best testament I can give to Das Boot is that I was really tired last night but managed to watch both final episodes between 9-11 pm. The plot is multi-layered. Klaus Hoffmann (Rick Okon), war hero and U-boat commander from a distinguished naval family, is complicit in a plot to topple Hitler [...]

October 26, 2023 // 0 Comments

The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys/Jack Jewers

Historical fiction has become a popular genre with writers like C.J. Samson and his Shardlake novels set in the reign of Henry VIII leading the way. In some respects these are easy novels to write – as you do not have to invent a whole cast of characters – but (in other respects) [...]

September 25, 2023 // 0 Comments

A Nazi Conspiracy/Brad Meltzer & Josh Mensch

This is an account of an alleged Nazi conspiracy to assassinate the Big Three (Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin) at the Tehran Conference in 1943. I say “alleged” as there may have been no conspiracy but a ruse by the Soviets to scare President Roosevelt into staying not at the US [...]

September 6, 2023 // 0 Comments

University Challenge’s New Quizmaster

In its 70 year history University Challenge has only had 3 quizmasters: Bamber Gascoigne, Jeremy Paxman and now the BBC’s media editor Amol Rajan. He made his debut last night in a contest between Trinity College and the University of Manchester which ended in a tie with 175 points respectively. [...]

July 18, 2023 // 0 Comments

A Bridge Too Far

I nicknamed this Richard Attenborough film An Hour Too Long as length is one of its problems. The other is the assemblage of stars – Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Lawrence Olivier, Anthony Hopkins, Liv Ullmann, Robert Redford, James Caan, Elliot Gould, Maximilian Schell, Hardy Kruger, Edward [...]

April 2, 2023 // 0 Comments

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