Articles by J S Bird

About J S Bird

A retired academic, Jeremy will contribute article on subjects that attract his interest. More Posts

Once upon a time …

My first-ever WW1 battlefield tour, over two decades ago now, began with joining a coach at Victoria Station which departed for a Channel ferry and then on towards Ypres. Our guide, a former military man who was rarely without a gin-and-tonic in one hand and a cigarette in the other, specialised in [...]

June 8, 2014 // 0 Comments

Casus belli? The WW1 debate continues

As I expected – although it seems that Education Secretary Michael Gove, accused of playing politics with the varied opinions upon the cause of World War One, has been told by some Cabinet colleagues to ‘button it’ – the ripples from his Daily Mail article at the beginning [...]

January 9, 2014 // 0 Comments

Another log on the WW1 fire

In my personal view the Blackadder project, which began to be funny with the Elizabethan series 2, really hit its stride with series 3 – set in the Regency period, with Hugh Laurie outstanding as the Prince Regent himself. Before that I had watched it more for the aristocracy of its [...]

January 6, 2014 // 0 Comments

A salute to two new historical biographies

In March 2009 the Shadow Home Affairs Minister Andrew Rosindell, Tory MP for Romford, introduced a private member’s bill in the House of Commons entitled the Teaching of British History in Schools Bill. His thrust was that the decreasing popularity of history as a choice of subject by pupils was [...]

December 17, 2013 // 0 Comments

The case of the odd couple

Have I missed something? These past few weeks, the British public has been ‘entertained’ by the goings-on at the trial at Isleworth Crown Court of the Grillo sisters (Elisabetta and Francesca), sometimes employees of Charles Saatchi and Nigella Lawson, on fraud charges. You’ll have to [...]

December 13, 2013 // 0 Comments

Mandela – the world mourns, but there’s only so much a man can take

The news from South Africa overnight that Nelson Mandela had died aged 95, having been receiving intensive care at his home in Johannesburg since September, has inevitably and rightly resulted in blanket media coverage around the world. Politicians, statesmen, celebrities and notables from all [...]

December 6, 2013 // 2 Comments

Health matters

Self diagnosis is not easy, very often you give yourself the benefit of the doubt. 12 years ago I waited a week for an abscess to be removed and in that week contracted necrotising fasciitis ( the human flesh disease) which resulted in 14 days in intensive case ,32 operations in 3 months and [...]

November 23, 2013 // 0 Comments

REMEMBRANCE DAY

If you asked me how many people from the UK died during World War Two I would have guessed it was 2 million. So I was surprised to learn that of the 55 million that perished in the conflict the number of Britons was 480,000. This does not compare with the Soviet Union that lost 20m or Japan 2 [...]

November 10, 2013 // 1 Comment

THE MONSTROUS REGIMENT

When I was a young man, there was a glib and mildly amusing review of the readership of the national newspapers doing the rounds. You may remember it – let’s see if I can: ‘THE TIMES is read by the men who own or run the country; the DAILY TELEGRAPH by those who would like the country to be [...]

November 6, 2013 // 0 Comments

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