October 2013 in Review

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.

Books

Fiction

“Use of Weapons” Iain M. Banks. Science fiction, set in his Culture universe – Zakalwe is the one operative capable of doing the job that Special Circumstances need doing, so he’s brought out of retirement but his past is catching up with him. Part of Read All the Fiction, kept.

“Look to Windward” Iain M. Banks. Science fiction, set in his Culture universe. Part of Read All the Fiction, kept.

“All Our Yesterdays” Cristin Terrill. Young adult time travel novel, rather good. Library book.

Total: 3

Non-Fiction

“Plantagenet England 1225-1360” Michael Prestwich. Part of the New Oxford History of England.

Total: 1

Photos

Delicate.

Turin Street At Night.

Weather Beaten.

Total: 3

Radio

Exoplanets. In Our Time episode about planets in other solar systems to our own.

The Mamluks. In Our Time episode about the Mamluks, who were a slave army who ruled Egypt between the 13th & 16th Centuries AD.

Total: 2

Talks

EEG Trip to the EES. A group of us from the EEG visited the London office of the EES to see their archives.

“Freemasonry and Ancient Egypt” Cathie Bryan. Talk at the EEG meeting in October, about the influences of (perceived) Egyptian culture on Freemasonry.

Total: 2

Television

Non-Fiction

Ancient Greece: The Greatest Show on Earth. Michael Scott looks at the development of drama in Ancient Greece.

David Attenborough’s Rise of the Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates. David Attenborough shows us how the vertebrates evolved from little worms to the diversity of today.

A Hundred Years of Us. Aired to coincide with the 2011 census this is a look at how British culture has changed over the last hundred years.

John Sergeant on Tracks of Empire. John Sergeant travels across India on the railway, looking at the history of India, the British Empire and the railways.

Nigel Slater: Life is Sweets. A combination of a history & survey of British sweets with some autobiographical reminiscences from Nigel Slater.

The Ottomans: Europe’s Muslim Emperors. Series about the history of the Ottoman Empire presented by Rageh Omaar.

Shakespeare in Italy. Francesco da Mosto talking about Shakespeare’s plays that’re set in Italy.

The Story of the Jews. Series presented by Simon Schama about the history of the Jews.

Stories of the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisted. Julian Richards returns to digs that were originally filmed for Meet the Ancestors more than a decade ago & sees what new things have been learnt.

The Wonder of Dogs. Kate Humble, Steve Leonard & Ruth Goodman talk about the history & biology of dogs.

Total: 10

Trip

King’s College, Cambridge – we visited for the first time in September 2013.

Total: 1