Just in

History

It’s going to get worse … before it gets more worse

It occurred to me yesterday that you can get up to some pretty weird things trying to occupy yourself during these lock-down days. It’s all relative, of course. Here in The Rust’s editorial command centre on the second level deck of the publisher’s superyacht moored two miles off the coast of [...]

March 29, 2020 // 0 Comments

What goes around comes around

Returning from my own self-isolation purdah – from about May of 2019 I’ve been sparing in my Rust contributions largely because, the way the world was going, there seemed little point in continuing to air my unflinchingly cynical views upon political matters for fear of boring this organ’s [...]

March 28, 2020 // 0 Comments

Hanks For The Memory

Almost from its inception from time to time The Rust has featured a selection of lists. We love them. Most importantly, in times like these, they can be a reliable kicking-off point for conversations and arguments. Inevitably, in the nature of human things, nothing is quite as simple as you might [...]

March 27, 2020 // 0 Comments

The Mirror and the Light/Hilary Mantel

In these extraordinary times I feel entitled in reviewing a book that I have not read and am not going to read. It’s the third book in Hilary Mantel’s trilogy on Thomas Cromwell. Reviewers I respect have criticised it for being too long and needing editing. Why the fuss? It’s rather like [...]

March 24, 2020 // 0 Comments

I Can’t Explain

“We are only of our time” is a principle that all human beings would do well to acknowledge, whether they are contemplating past events and historical figures, or indeed those of their own lifetimes and generations. As in Britain our higher educational establishments ban free speech, cover up [...]

March 21, 2020 // 0 Comments

A HISTORY OF BOXING/DVD

Imagine my surprise when – of all places in my dustbin area – I saw lying around this 2 part DVD produced by Marks and Spencer entitled  A History of Boxing. I had posted on boxing very recently but this enabled me to see footage of the golden age of heavyweight boxing from Joe Louis [...]

March 18, 2020 // 0 Comments

The Splendid and the Vile/ Erik Larson

This an engaging and well-researched account by an American author and journalist of the Blitz. My initial reaction on reading the reviews was “Do I need this?” Over the last year I had read Andrew Roberts’ biography of Churchill, Appeasing Hitler, Nicholas Shakespeare’s Six Minutes [...]

March 17, 2020 // 0 Comments

The small gap between certainty and the opposite

It’s a funny old world we live in. Yesterday I travelled by train into central London to lunch with some old mates who on the face of it have nothing more in common than a past in the sense that we all went to the same school at roughly the same time. At least that’s one way of looking at it. [...]

March 14, 2020 // 0 Comments

On the other hand – and indeed side of the Pond …

I’m bound to say that if we in the UK have had some weird political times since the 2016 EU Referendum, they’re nothing compared to what the United States of America has been going through since Donald Trump was elected President. “As any fule no” – to quote the legendary Nigel [...]

February 6, 2020 // 0 Comments

The tribulations of switching careers

Though his success in both his careers – footballer and TV host/presenter – is undeniable, I have never personally warmed to Gary Linker. Well, save for the time he made those gestures – caught vividly on the TV cameras – to England manager Bobby Robson on the bench during the 4th July [...]

January 28, 2020 // 0 Comments

1 … 71 72 73 74 75 … 90

Copyright © 2026 The National Rust | Design by Premonition