Entertainment | Literature: Off the Shelf Festival of Words, Sheffield (ft. Jenni Murray and Stephen McGann)

Over the past month, I've attended a variety of talks across Sheffield as part of the Off the Shelf Festival of Words. The festival invites authors of newly released books to come and talk about their latest work and this year has included the likes of Mark Haddon, Robert Webb and Brian Blessed to name but a few. The festival encompassed both fiction and non-fiction, although the events I attended were mostly about books of a non-fictional, specifically historical nature.

History | History in an Object: The Elephant

For a while now, I've been toying with the idea of doing a 'History in an Object' on the blog. Whilst I wouldn't really call an animal "an object", it seemed the best catch-all phrase for the series as I have a few actual objects lined up for future posts. I'm of the opinion that you can learn a lot about history by picking one thing and broadening it out. Thus, three small tales of elephants actually reveal quite a bit about the societies they lived in.

History | Odd Things That Happened in History: Part Two

I had a lot of fun writing part one of Odd Things That Happened in History and it proved to be quite a successful post! I love discovering little pieces of anecdotal history and I think it's interesting how much they can reveal more widely about the context in which they occurred. Today's post features two anecdotes rather than three as the pope/anti-pope one turned out quite long. Hope you enjoy!

'What the Artist Saw', New Walk Museum's Joe Orton Exhibition | Leicester

This post is rather new for me as I've never reviewed a museum exhibit before, and it's not something I read much of either. However, as a history student passionate about the importance of public history, I figured that my blog would be the perfect place to talk about museums and other heritage hotspots in my ever ongoing (albeit sporadic) efforts to get people engaged in the past.

What the Artist Saw marks the 50th anniversary of Joe Orton's murder at the hands of his partner, Kenneth Halliwell. However, the exhibition does not focus on his death but rather, more positively, upon his work's cultural impact. Orton was a Leicester playwright of working-class origins, whose work helped to subvert both the classist and homophobic status quo of 1960s Britain. He was also the inspiration for many socially-conscious art pieces which make up the bulk of this exhibition.

History | Stuff People Used to Believe: Sex Edition

If I were to ask you to name a strange thing people used to believe, you'd likely go for "the earth was flat". You probably wouldn't say that people believed a woman could essentially think her way into birthing rabbits (unless you have to put up with me in real life, in which case I've probably mentioned it several times). A whole range of weird things were believed back in "the olden days", and ideas of sex and reproduction were no exception.

History | Odd Things That Happened in History

Hello all! I realised recently that, although I'm a History student and History is one of my favourite things, it's never really made much of an appearance on my blog, a place where I aim to write about "whatever interests me". I was a little unsure about how popular a History-themed post might be on my blog, but after I aired my concerns on Twitter and many of you encouraged it I thought I'd go for it! This post contains only a few little anecdotal tales as I wanted to test the water, as it were. But if you'd like to see more posts on History, please let me know as I had lots of fun writing it!

Entertainment | Book Review: 'After Auschwitz' by Eva Schloss

After Auschwitz details the life of Eva Schloss (whose mother, widowed by the Holocaust, later married Otto Frank, the widowed father of Anne Frank) throughout her time before, during and after her imprisonment at Auschwitz. The book covers topics of trauma, family life and hope, whilst also engaging in several discussions of historical legacies and public memories of Anne Frank, the Holocaust and the Second World War more broadly.