4, 7, 23, 26, 27!!!! /overkill
4. Favourite historical era?
If Iād ever been able to choose this then I wouldnāt have ended up graduating with one set of special subject modules about sickness, health, food and drink in early modern England, another set about popular culture and the structure of buildings in the late Medieval period, and a dissertation on boundaries, routeways and settlement patterns in Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, nor would I have gone on from that to write a fictional manuscript that jumps between WW2 and the Bronze Age.Ā
My favourite historical era is probably in there somewhere.
7. Historical dressing, uniform, or costume?
I donāt understand this question? :(
23. What's your favourite historical song or song containing historical references?
The question here is, am I going to try and find a vaguely cool song that references something historical or am I going to fully folk-history-geek it up and fall back on traditional?
The answer is that I canāt think of any modern songs with historical references, so here goes, traditional folk songs it is.
I mean itās not really a favourite because Iāve heard it too many times bellowed tunelessly at rugby matches, but I always find it hilarious that Scotlandās unofficial national anthem (Flower of Scotland) is literally about a battle fought (and won) against the English in 1314. 1314.Ā Scotland never forgets.
On a more serious note, The Green Fields of France is about a soldier who died in WW1, or, on a more existential note, about the futility and slaughter of war.
And Iāll always have a huge soft spot for the Skye Boat Song, on which the Outlander theme tune is based (it has the same tune, but they changed the words - except for the main chorus line āover the sea to Skyeā which has always struck me as odd since the Isle of Skye never features in Outlander, so why leave the reference in?). It was sung to me as a lullaby when I was a baby, and my grandparents lived on Skye so I went over the sea to the island (on the ferry until they opened the bridge) very frequently, and Iāve lived there myself more recently. It is (in its original form) about the failure of the Jacobite rebellion in 1745, and the person being taken over the sea to Skye is Charles Stuart, escaping from the government soldiers.Ā
26. Who do you think is a forgotten hero we should know about and admire?
Mary Seacole. Her story is very similar to that of Florence Nightingale - she also went out to the Crimean War and set up as a nurse, caring for sick and convalescent soldiers. Everyone (at least in Britain - I have no idea how famous she is anywhere else?) knows about Florence Nightingale, and sheās lauded as a social reformer and the founder of modern nursing. Seacole never gets a mention because of one key difference between them: Nightingale was white and Seacole was black.
27. What's your favourite historical "What if..." scenario?
Okay but what if Richard Cromwell had been a competent leader, held onto the army and swayed parliament
