25th December

All right, let's get this over with. Christians will tell you that Jesus is the reason for the season (i.e. the celebration of the birth of Christ on this day 2012 years ago). Actually, of course, they are almost certainly wrong. Until the 5th century, some people celebrated the man's birthday in January, others in May, others with the Feast of the Epiphany. In 440 a synod of the Church pinched the old Roman midwinter festival (already an excuse for a holiday) and claimed it was 25 December. There is no historical justification for this and so those who bemoan the fact that the whole nativity thing is disappearing from Christmas and we all just use it as an excuse to eat and drink too much and watch excruciatingly awful TV, is not surprising, really.

In other news ...
The Florentine monk Giralomo Savonarola got a bit shirty today in 1497. While everybody else was watching the Queen's Speech or yet another chance to see all 438 ghastly episodes of Downton on the tele, he accused the Pope of corruption and Leonardo da Vinci of sodomy.

Come off the fence, now, Savvy and tell it like it is.

Despite this somewhat unseasonal post, I would nevertheless like to wish my follower the very warmest compliments of the season. Nolan, Metternich and Mrs Carpenter-Maxwell all join me in hoping you are having a splendid Christmas, with as many presents as you wanted and more turkey than you could possibly eat in a long day's march. Taking a leaf out of my old mate M J Trow's family book, we have bought Nolan his first guitar, which is sounding not too bad at all from the sitting room. By all accounts if he takes to it it will lead to a life of penury for us as more and more sophisticated instruments become necessary, but if music helps him grow up into half the man Tali Trow has, then it will be money well spent.

God Bless Us, Every One!

7th November

Benito Mussolini became leader of the National Fascist Party in Italy today in 1921. You've got to hand it to dictators - they have a great line in titles. Mussolini became Il Duce; Hitler was Der Fuhrer, Franco was El Caudillo. Even our own home grown Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector. And what have we got now? Minister for Sport, for the Environment and Without Portfolio.

In other news ...
Helen Suzman, the anti-apartheid campaigner was born today in 1917. I just loved her in Nicholas and Alexandra.

For anyone fortunate enough to live in the Isle of Wight, pop your wellies on tonight and get on down to the Riverside Centre in Newport, where my old mate M J Trow is giving a talk on crime. It is somewhat of a sideline of his - the plan is he gives the talks and then his accomplice, Joe 'the Horse' Bomparini nips round everyone's houses and cleans out their jewellery. Well, it beats working for a living.

16th October

It was a great day for executions today. In 1555 Bishops Latimer and Ridley went to the stake in Oxford for their religious beliefs. And in 1793 'the Austrian woman', Marie Antoinette, went to the guillotine in Paris. somebody drew her in a tumbril on her way to the Place de Guerre. She was 38 and looks a hundred. How are the mighty fallen?

In other news ...

Angela Lansbury was born today in 1925. Check out (as her countrymen would say) this amazing lady - she was brilliant in The Court Jester, gorgeous in The Three Musketeers, a national treasure in Murder She Wrote. She is about to tour Australia with the great James Earl Jones in Driving Miss Daisy. And she's related to a British Labour Leader, George Lansbury.

They don't make them like her any more.

In a personal note, I would like to wish a very happy birthday to my very good friend M J Trow. I am reluctant to give his year of birth - like Cliff Richard, I suspect him of having a portrait in the attic - but he is an all round nice chap and altogether much too modest, so, Happy Birthday, M J Trow, from your staunchest fan. I have been chortling over his latest offering on the crime novel front, written with his good lady, Witch Hammer - I haven't finished it yet, having only started it yesterday but I have no idea whodunnit; always a good sign!

30th August

Denis Healey was born today in 1917. Who? I hear you cry, gentle reader. He was a Labour MP, Cabinet Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer with the bushiest eyebrows in politics. He was mercilessly lampooned by the impressionist Mike Yarwood with the immortal phrase 'Silly Billy'. So, happy birthday, Denis, 95 today.

In other news ...
Marcus Antonius committed suicide today in Alexandria in 30BC. He'd just lost a war against Octavius Caesar and not even his famous wife, Cleopatra, could shake him out of his depression. He did 'what's fine, what's Roman' (that's your actual Shakespeare) after his bodyservant refused to kill him with his sword.

Incidentally, there's a rather good bio of Cleopatra out shortly from Constable Robinson in their Brief History of ... series, by my old mate MJ Trow.

7th August

Martha Tabram died today in 1888. She was probably the first victim of the still unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper aka the Whitechapel Murderer. The Metropolitan Police are a little stretched at the moment with the Olympic security issue, but just as soon as the Games are over, they have promised Press and public they'll be right on it.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jack-Ripper-Killer-M-J-Trow/dp/1845631269/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344262511&sr=8-1

As you can see, I have added a link - or have I? It's a mystery and no mistake, this computer stuff. If I have you will find yourself on Amazon, where you can buy an excellent book by my old mate M J Trow on who Jack the Ripper really was .... possibly.

In other news ...
A UFO was sighted over Basle in Switzerland on this day in 1556. Was it a bird? Was it a plane? Was it Clark Kent? Whatever it was, it was the only thing to have happened in Switzerland since William Tell tried to murder his own son and pretended it was a feat of extraordinary marksmanship.

10th July

Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, known as the Cid Campeador (the Lord Champion) died in Valencia today in 1099. For aficionados of the superb Charlton Heston film, I hate to burst your bubble, but he wasn't strapped, dead, onto his horse for one last battle against the invading Almoravid Moors from Africa. He died peacefully in his bed and his body was removed from its tomb four years later to be re-interred by his wife in a Castilian monastery.

He never lost a battle in his life.

To learn more about this amazing man, go to Amazon and put El Cid in the search to find the best book  on him, by my old mate M J Trow. Make sure you choose the new option, then the top seller in the list, to make sure it is a genuine copy signed by the author.

In other news ...
I'd like to quote from Ted Kavanagh, a wireless script writer today in 1847. I make no comment on the quotation at all -

'It has been discovered experimentally that you can draw laughter from an audience anywhere in the world, of any class or race, simply by walking onto the stage and uttering the words, "I am a married man".'