Blog
Thanksgiving Thursday: starting a New World Order
Thanksgiving in America celebrates the first arrival of a band of Puritans in the New World in 1620, having survived an arduous sea passage from England in a vessel called The Mayflower. These Pilgrim Fathers had a distinct ambition of founding a godly kingdom on...
End of an era for The Huguenots of Spitalfields
The Huguenots of Spitalfields, a charity set up by the boundlessly energetic Charlie de Wet, has announced its closure. I have files and files of notes I took on Huguenots of Spitalfields outings. I reckon the first one I went on was in 2014, but 2015 was a really...
Huguenot Heroes: Zoom Lecture on 23 November from 7.00pm to 8.00pm
The Huguenots of Spitalfields have organised an art event which promises to be unique. It’s a look at some of the famous Huguenots whose portraits now hang in the National Portrait Gallery. “From Calvin to Churchill, Garrick to Garland, the legacy of the Huguenots...
Too many men – Women of Bedford protest
There are eleven statues in the town of Bedford, and not one of them is of a woman. A vigorous local campaign has grown up to put that right. The campaign group Women of Bedford wants to erect the first statue in the town to celebrate a woman - educational reformer,...
The tears of the Huguenots: a virtual tour of Wandsworth on 18 February
If you live in London, you’ve probably driven through Wandsworth, cursing its one-way systems, staring at its dull architecture and nasty shop-fronts as you wait for the traffic to move, without ever seeing the signs of the Huguenots. Even on a walk through its...
Promotion – excellent pay, good prospects and a company horse
Guest blog: Author Ann Vinden is currently writing a biography set in Chile during the nitrate extraction period. She writes here about horses, class and family. No-one would have suggested learning to ride a horse as a means of independence in the shire counties...
To be disreputable, disrespectful, disobedient
Sarah Perry’s latest publication, “Essex Girls: For Profane and Opinionated Women Everywhere”, is a tiny little book based on a Harriet Martineau lecture she gave; it’s an entertaining read for any woman who doesn’t like to shut up. Sarah Perry is best known for her...
An excellent gift for the Vicar
Bah Humbug is one response to Christmas, exemplified by Dr Seuss’ The Grinch. In 1644 Parliament was peopled with Puritan Grinches, and their declaration cancelling Christmas has now been reproduced on a tea towel. Clearly these were not populists, appealing to the...
“A huge, heavy galleon of white Portland stone…”
“…anchored among the red-brick Queen Anne houses of the weavers.” So John Betjeman described Christ Church, Spitalfields, in The Collins Guide to English Parish Churches. The Grade I listed church was built following an Act of Parliament in 1711, which legislated for...
“When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it…”
I have my criticisms of my mother, and in many ways she was an abomination, but she did make sure I learnt to swim, and – more unusually – to ride. My sister and I were horse fanatics. Our riding lessons involved a long, meandering bus ride through the lanes of...
Joe Robinette Biden: Hey Joe, is that a Huguenot name there?
Joe Biden’s middle name, Robinette, is enough to make any Huguenot researcher’s ears twitch; and, quick as a flash on his victory, Facebook group Huguenot Heritage claimed him. Biden himself has been self-effacing about his ancestry: “It’s my grandmother Biden’s...
Slavery, statuary and Huguenot villainry
Thanks to Black Lives Matter and the toppling of a Bristol statue, I’ve just found out about the part a number of Huguenots played in the transatlantic slave trade. All that Bible reading did such Huguenots no good when it came to the lives of stolen Africans. We all...
