This is an index and summary of the things I’ve talked about over the last month. Links for multi-post subjects go to the first post (even if it’s before this month), you can follow the internal navigation links from there. (TV shows without full posts will not be linked, but will be listed.)
Books
Fiction
“Chronicles of the Black Company” Glen Cook – rather good secondary world military fantasy about a mercenary band who contract to the Lady, who is a reawakened evil sorceress putting down a rebellion.
Total: 1
Links
Total:4
Museums
Vikings: Life and Legend. Exhibition at the British Museum.
Total: 1
Photos
Total: 4
Radio
Pocahontas. In Our Time episode about the life of Pocahontas.
The Physiocrats. In Our Time episode about the Physiocrats – who were a school of economic thought in 18th Century France.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In Our Time episode about one of the great Chinese novels, written around 1400AD about the historical period at the end of the Han dynasty nearly a thousand years earlier.
Total: 3
Talks
“Dealing with the Invisible: Experiencing Egyptian Mythology” Garry Shaw. Talk given at the March meeting of the EEG.
“Figurines in Ancient China: From Prehistory to the First Emperor” Sascha Priewe. Talk at the British Museum.
Total: 2
Television
Non-Fiction
Around the World in 60 Minutes – one-off programme partly about what it’s like to be an astronaut on the ISS and what space travel has done for us. And partly a travelogue about various places on Earth that the ISS passes over, and how we only have one planet so we should look after it.
Captain Cook: The Man Behind the Legend – Timewatch episode from 2008/09 about Captain Cook & his voyages of exploration. I knew surprisingly little about the man in advance (beyond that he existed).
Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters – programme about the various stories and explanations that people used to have for dinosaur bones.
Edward VII: Prince of Pleasure – biography of Edward VII.
The First World War – a 10 part series covering the whole of the war.
The Great British Year – series about British wildlife and countryside over the whole year. Lots of gorgeous shots of animals, and timelapse sequences of landscapes.
Henry & Anne: The Lovers that Changed History – two part series about Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, part dramatised documentary presented by Suzanne Lipscomb.
Inside the Animal Mind – Chris Packham looks at how animals think and perceive the world around them.
Mad Dog: Gaddafi’s Secret World – a 90 minute documentary about the rise and fall of Gaddafi, using interviews with people who were a part of his regime in one way or another. Very much had a message, and sometimes you could see just how they were using spin to make him seem as bad as possible (even tho I agreed with the premise it felt heavy handed). Part of the Storyville series.
Royal Cousins at War – a look at the dysfunctional family relationships between the three cousins who ruled England, Germany and Russia at the outbreak of the First World War.
Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England – this was part of the BBC’s Tudor Season in 2013. It’s a series about life in Elizabethan times from the perspective of the differences between now and then, what you’d need to know if you could travel back there.
Unnatural Histories – series about human influence on areas of the world that we traditionally think of as “untamed nature”.
Viking Art: A Culture Show Special – programme about the current British Museum exhibition, tho the programme concentrated more on Britain than the exhibition does.
Total: 13