John Welford
Bio
I am a retired librarian, having spent most of my career in academic and industrial libraries.
I write on a number of subjects and also write stories as a member of the "Hinckley Scribblers".
Stories (501/0)
The Voynich Manuscript
The Voynich Manuscript is one of the stranger items held by the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts library of Yale University. Physically, it is a tiny notebook comprising pages of text and illustrations, mainly of plants, but also including astronomical and astrological charts, recipes, and pictures of naked women. However, the text is in a language that nobody has ever been able to translate or decipher, which means that the origin and purpose of the manuscript are still shrouded in mystery ever since it first came to public attention before World War I.
By John Welford3 years ago in FYI
On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer, by John Keats
On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer was the second poem that John Keats (1795-1821) had published, although it was far from being the first that he had written. It was, however, the first that brought him to the attention of the literary public.
By John Welford3 years ago in Poets
How to See a Soul
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, was a strange chap who was given to doing strange things. Born in 1194, he became Holy Roman Emperor (a very odd institution that was neither holy nor Roman, and hardly an empire either) in 1220. He was already the King of Sicily (since 1198) and King of Germany (since 1212). He would also gain the title of King of Jerusalem in 1225, as part of a deal to get him to go on a crusade to the Holy Land – he eventually set sail on the Sixth Crusade in 1228 but soon turned back on claiming to be unwell.
By John Welford4 years ago in The Swamp
Durham Cathedral
Durham Cathedral is surely the greatest example of Romanesque architecture, certainly in England and probably the world. Begun in 1093 and completed in its essentials only 40 years later (later additions included the towers and cloisters) it is a remarkable survival of the years when Norman kings ruled England some 900 years ago.
By John Welford4 years ago in Wander
The Bombing of Dresden, 1945
On 13th February 1945 Great Britain committed one of the worst war crimes ever perpetrated, namely the senseless and unnecessary bombing of Dresden that killed more than 130,000 people and destroyed one of the most beautiful and historic cities of Europe.
By John Welford4 years ago in Serve
Edward Grim: The Man who Stood by Thomas Beckett
Very little is known about Edward Grim, either before or after the event that is the reason why he is known about at all, but the document he left behind offered a perspective on that event that is well worth remembering.
By John Welford4 years ago in The Swamp
An Overall View of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
Any attempt to provide a complete literary analysis of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in 1,000 words or so is doomed to failure. The book runs to some 17,000 lines of (mostly) verse, comprising 24 tales, a long introductory General Prologue and a number of other prologues to tales and other linking material. The analysis therefore has to be at a more general level, with examples brought in to illustrate the important points.
By John Welford4 years ago in Geeks
Nighthawks, by Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper (1882-1967) was a pioneer of the modern realism movement in the United States. During a long career as an artist, Hopper had known both depression and success, and “Nighthawks”, painted in 1942, dates from one of his more productive periods when he was financially secure, in good health, and untroubled in his personal life.
By John Welford4 years ago in Geeks
Emperor Augustus of Rome
Although Julius Caesar acted in many ways like a monarch, the change from Roman Republic to Roman Empire dates from the accession to the role of head of state of Gaius Octavius (later Gaius Julius Caesar, but generally known as Octavian), with the title Caesar Augustus. This took place in 27 BC, but the process of turning Octavian into Augustus had been a long and painful one.
By John Welford4 years ago in The Swamp