John Maynard Keynes – (1883 – 1946)

Jan 5, 2025 | Cambridge, People

Keynes appears with speaking parts in all three of my Addlestone Chronicles historical novels. In these, James and Louise are Cambridge undergraduate students in 1934. James studies Maths at King’s College, and Louise studies Modern Languages at Newnham College....

Joachim von Ribbentrop

Dec 28, 2024 | Nazis, People

What follows is an extract from the Historical Background section of Lebensborn, the second book in The Addlestone Chronicles trilogy: “Joachim von Ribbentrop is mentioned on several occasions in Addlestone and Lebensborn. He was a sycophantic supporter of Hitler, who...

British Fascists in the 1930’s

Sep 29, 2024 | Fascism, History, People

Captain Archibald Henry Maule (Jock) Ramsay was elected as a Conservative Party member of Parliament in 1931, after which he developed increasingly outspoken and strident antisemitic rhetoric. He became the head and founder of the ultra-right-wing fascist organization...

David Ricardo and the English Corn Laws

Sep 21, 2024 | People

In Lebensborn, the second novel in the trilogy, The Addlestone Chronicles, I have James and Donald talking with their captor, Max Kingsley-Paige, who is a rogue MI6 agent. Max argues: “It’s the working classes who’ve been the victims of this worldwide Depression....

Boys in the Boat

Sep 6, 2024 | Olympics, People

Lebensborn, the second novel in the trilogy, The Addlestone Chronicles, covered the 1936 Berlin Olympics and Jesse Owens’ four gold medals. Hitler attended the games but refused to award the gold medal to a Black athlete, despite press claims that he intended to do so...

Jesse Owens

Sep 6, 2024 | People

In yesterday’s posting, I offered some details about the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Central to that was Jesse Owens’ feat of achieving four gold medals, three of which were world records. Here is a bit of trivia that I included in the Historical Background section of...