Richard III in court

I was going to start with the king’s eyebrows, but Max Clifford’s penis has to come first. While I watched the dissection of the Plantagenet Alliance’s claims in the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Friday morning, across the river, at Southwark Crown Court, the high-profile publicist heard his anatomy being discussed. A witness …

Does handling of Richard III’s bones raise serious questions?

Some think so. Are they right? We’ll need a clear head for this, as some of the allegations imply professional wrongdoing, and the issues reach beyond a dead monarch. The Independent (a national UK paper, on March 4) and the Yorkshire Post (a regional paper, on March 8) recently published the same letter from five …

Is British Museum Vikings show a disaster?

First Stonehenge, now our old friend the BM. What’s gone wrong? “Disaster” is what art critic Brian Sewell calls the newly opened “Vikings: Life and Legend” exhibition – and also the room in which it’s held, part of the new and hugely significant extension to the British Museum. Writing in the Evening Standard, he describes …

Eleven planes

My Dad was a rear-gunner in world war two. He flew mostly in Liberators (during the war) and Lancasters (immediately after), but according to his log book he also went up in nine other types. I’ve been reading about a recent excavation project on Salisbury Plain, when soldiers and archaeologists examined a Battle of Britain …