Books

  • Karl van Beethoven

    BBC 4 was showing ‘Beethoven’s Ninth Unwrapped’ last night to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s extraordinary piece. Aurora Orchestra took to the stage at the Royal Albert Hall with a signature memorised performance, led by conductor Nicholas Collon, and a dramatic exploration into the intricacies of the music and the maestro. The…

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  • Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, first published on 19 December 1843, is one of the most enduring works of English literature and a defining text of the Victorian era. Although it is often regarded as a simple holiday story, the novella is a sophisticated moral narrative that addresses social inequality, personal responsibility, and the possibility…

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  • The Ritchie Boys

    The Ritchie Boys were a group of military intelligence officers and enlisted men of World War II trained at Camp Ritchie in Maryland, USA. Many of them were Jewish refugees who had fled Nazi Germany and other Axis countries. They were primarily recruited from immigrant communities in the United States, particularly those who spoke German,…

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  • The phrase “our man in New York” most commonly refers to William Stephenson, the Canadian-born MI6 officer who led a covert British intelligence operation in the United States aimed at shaping public opinion and encouraging American entry into the Second World War. His remarkable work is the focus of Henry Hemming’s critically acclaimed 2019 non-fiction…

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  • This might seem like a strange statement for me to make to the people who read my blogs, but when it comes down to it, I know very little in relation to the Holocaust. Yes, I do know the statistics and the numbers. Yes, I do know the stories of the survivors and even a…

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  • November 22, 1963, is a date forever etched into the fabric of American history. It was the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, plunging the nation into shock and sorrow. Amid the chaos and heartbreak of that day, another tragedy unfolded—a story often overshadowed but no less significant. It was the killing of Dallas…

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  • Heinrich Himmler must have been without a shadow of a doubt one of the craziest of the Nazis. He had a bizarre fascination for the occult. Karl Maria Wiligut had been one of Himmler’s closest influancers relating to the occult of the Aryan and Germanic race. Karl Maria Wiligut (alias Weisthor, Jarl Widar, Lobesam) (10…

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  • Glenn Miller, an American big band leader, disappeared under mysterious circumstances during World War II. On December 15, 1944, his plane vanished over the English Channel en route from England to Paris. Official records attribute his death to bad weather and an overloaded small aircraft. However, conspiracy theories surrounding his disappearance have persisted. Among these,…

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  • Brigitte Eicke was a German girl who also kept a diary during the war, but her life was vastly different from Anne’s. As a member of the Nazi Youth organization, her perspective reflects the indoctrinated worldview of an average German child living under the Nazi regime. Brigitte’s diary entries, unlike Anne’s, are generally more mundane,…

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  • This piece isn’t about a Star Wars Christmas special—though, to be honest, seeing Santa join Darth Vader on the Dark Side would be undeniably awesome. When we think of Christmas, images of jolly Santa Claus, festive decorations, and cheerful Christmas carols come to mind. But hidden within the warmth of holiday cheer lies a figure…

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