With the defeat of  Licinius, Constantine was left as the sole leader of the entire Roman world.  But that didn’t stop him from dreaming.  In one dream he saw the spirit of the city of Byzantium as a tired and frail old matron.  But then she was transformed before his eyes into a beautiful young

Why does anyone get this into their head to do this?  At some point Emile Zola decided that it would be a good idea to write a huge series of novels based around the interlinked tales of one family. The whole series would take him over twenty years and finish up comprising twenty separate full

America is and always has been a highly expansionist entity.  It has used diplomacy, commerce and outright military force to expand its influence over the globe and to promote its own interests.  It has been markedly successful in this project and is now the most powerful nation the world has ever seen.

Rubbish First Edition of Paper that was Rubbish from beginning to end I like history, but I try not to be sentimental about historical things.  The News of the World has been a British institution for 168 years.  When I did a paper round as a boy half the Sunday papers we delivered to the

William Hazlitt – Self Portrait (Thanks to Wikipedia) Thanks to Jane Austen, and even more to all the television and film adaptations, we tend to think of Victorian and pre-Victorian Britain as a bit of a stuffy class based society where everyone knew their place.  And so no doubt it was.

  Christ’s Death must have been hard to cope with for his followers “Imagine no religion, it’s easy if you try.” So sang John Lennon.  I miss you John.  It would be really nice to think you were up there somewhere and could know how much we all love you.  I imagine that the followers