THE SUNDAY SNAP

A beam of light through the darkness, and a look at the week ahead on History, Etc.

It was bright and cold on Saturday morning and I was up with the sun. A shortcut on my early walk took me through the graveyard. Above ground the light was dazzling. But as I picked my way between the yews and the tombs I was more aware than usual that a few feet below me lay a silent field of bones.

I’m fond of gravestones, especially those that say something out of the ordinary. One by the church porch caught me eye. It told of the old fellow beneath it, who lived to a good age in the nineteenth century, and breathed his last while attending divine service. That struck me as quite considerate. They only had to move him a few yards to drop him back into the earth. Whence we all came.

This week on History, Etc, there’ll be an essay on a medieval siege of Kyiv, another subscribers-only discussion thread and the First Draft podcast. Tomorrow I’m going to see Kit Harington play Henry V, so I’ll share my thoughts on that, too.

Thanks as always to the subscribers who make this whole thing possible. If you haven’t yet signed up, please consider it. The more of us there are, the more fun we’ll have.

Dan

PS thanks also to everyone who said such nice things about the cover reveal of my new book, Essex Dogs. If you’d like to pre-order it, Waterstones have got you.