A lot, because I am a historian by training and have a huge interest in history. It is a fascinating, complex period spanning early antiquity to early modernity which has had huge signficance for the history of Europe and the Near East.
Most "Romaboos" - when not being ironic and meta about it...
Maestro looks awful, haven't bothered. Ferrari was unfortunately very poor, didn't bother with a review but saw it in the cinema because a mate dragged me over Christmas.
Napoleon (2023)
Incredibly disappointing. Napoleon is a bloated, muddled mess which races from one event of Napoleon’s life to the other without providing so much as a modicum of context or depth. Narratively it is extremely disjointed, and well...boring. The film tries to cover the entirety...
Anna Keay’s The Restless Republic: Britain without a Crown
Having just recently read Jonathan Healey’s new history of revolutionary England, I thought it would be good to tackle this one next. I was impressed with Healey’s, which provides a well-written overview of the whole century. Not dry...
The Beasts (2022)
Was really really impressed with this Franco-Iberian thriller. The Beasts follows a French couple who have settled in a remote corner of Galicia. Painstakingly restoring abandoned farmhouses and practicing organic farming they have seemingly adopted this rural lifestyle in...
Recently finished:
Jonathan Healey’s, The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England
The seventeenth century is one of my favourite periods of history to study. My own research was focused on the Irish events of this period, though I was always particularly fascinated by the...
Haven't actually read that one in particular, but his Early Christian Ireland was a key text for some courses I did at undergrad. It's a brilliant resource. And his Wales and the Britons, 350-1064 is also excellent. That book I would imagine would be a good synethsis of a lot of his research.
The sub-roman period in particular can be very tricky to reconstruct for sure. Thomas Charles-Edwards would be one of the best historians of that period, both from an Irish and British point of view.
Interesting I could see that definitely, sounds like you were remembering a certain element that was right anyway. It's certainly possible that the term might never made its way into English (which was evolved from the language brought by later Germanic settlers after all) only to be borrowed in...
<Huh2>
This is one hilariously garbled version of history. Like I honestly wonder where you have gotten this stuff from.
The lasting influence of the Romans on Britain is up for debate amongst historians (ie. a rotation of elites at the top level of society, or whether there was any deeper...
Finished this one this evening: SUPER-INFINITE: The transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell
Saw it recommended in the TLS, and thought I’d give it a go. Have a read a bit of Donne years ago, but not that much so I was more so reading this on the strength of the reviews. Well, it...
Recently read these books -
David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon: Oil, Money, Murder and the Birth of the FBI
Wanted to read it before the Scorcese film comes out later in the year (curious how they will handle what is a fairly sprawling narrative), but the book itself is absolutely...
Why does hockey do it that way? Seems a strange point to start from, as that seems the odd method if anything.
Can't think of a single sport I watch that measures "points" in that way by combining goals and assists.
Pacifiction (2022)
Watched this last night, the latest from Albert Serra. Cahiers du cinéma’s best film of last year I’m told. Set in French Polynesia, the film follows the High Commissioner of the Republic (the senior French government official) as he deals with disquieting rumours on the...
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