Feb 24, 20208 minChains of Consequences: Musical Windows on the PastBy Tom Anderson Song lyrics and band names reveal clues about the past. This should be obvious, on the face of it. Naturally bands take...
Feb 17, 20208 minChains of Consequences: How British Wartime Evacuation Created Top GearBy Tom Anderson As the Second World War broke out in September 1939, the British government knew that it would become necessary to...
Feb 10, 202010 minChains of Consequences: How Princess Diana’s Great-Great-Grandfather Created Grand Theft AutoBy Tom Anderson The eyes of the world were turned to Paris on August 31st, 1997, when Diana, Princess of Wales died from injuries...
Feb 3, 202012 minNaval Gazing 12: Cold WarriorsBy Tom Anderson As the Second World War ended, the Cold War began. The Soviet Union and the Western Allies had always been uneasy...
Jan 27, 20207 minChains of Consequence - Jazz, Charlie Brown, and Maths: The Strange Origins of ‘Google’By Tom Anderson THE sun is setting— Can’t you hear A something in the distance Howl!!? I wonder if it’s— Yes!! it is That horrid Google...
Jan 20, 20207 minConsequences: A Jumbo Article By Tom Anderson In May 2016, a child climbed into a zoo enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden and was grabbed and dragged...
Jan 14, 20208 minConsequences: Profundity, Mistranslation and Crystallised PhrasesBy Tom Anderson Some years ago, when I was in the final stages of writing up my PhD thesis, I decided I needed a suitably...
Jan 7, 202012 minNaval Gazing 11: The Ill-Named Pacific War By Tom Anderson The name ‘Pacific’ Ocean means ‘Peaceful’; it was so named by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 because he found favourable...
Dec 31, 20198 minConsequences: Calendar Club and Happy New Year By Tom Anderson “Did you hear about the man who stole a calendar? He got twelve months.” – old Christmas cracker joke Since the dawn of...
Dec 24, 201910 minConsequences: The Royal Family and a Very British Christmas By Tom Anderson Christmas is a festival which has reached around the world, and given birth to a host of different traditions in...
Dec 17, 201912 minNaval Gazing Part 10 – World War 2: Electric BoogalooBy Tom Anderson World War II has, for understandable reasons, left a long shadow on our cultural memory. Not only the greatest war the...
Dec 10, 201910 minConsequences in Alternate History: How an Egyptian Policeman’s Bullet Created a British Icon By Tom Anderson In my previous ‘Consequences’ article, I described how the near miss of a gunman led to the writing of The Wind in the...
Dec 3, 201910 minNaval Gazing, Part 9: Interwar Intrigues By Tom Anderson World War One was said to be ‘the war to end all wars’. The fact that we now have to append a number to it is testament...
Nov 26, 20197 minConsequences in Alternate History: Across the Wild WoodBy Tom Anderson How a Scotsman’s Alcoholism and an Englishman’s Bad Aim Created Modern Children’s Literature Kenneth Grahame was, as one...
Nov 19, 201911 minAlternate Terminology: Naval Gazing, Part 8 - The Not-So-Great WarBy Tom Anderson On June 28th 1914, Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the...
Nov 17, 20198 minAn Introduction to the “Look to the West” SeriesBy Tom Anderson In January 2007 I first began writing and posting a project I called “Look to the West”, my first ‘proper’ attempt at a...
Nov 12, 20197 minConsequences in Alternate History: The Garibaldi ProblemBy Tom Anderson I recently mentioned on social media that on this day (then November 4th) Túpac Amaru II had launched his uprising in...
Nov 5, 20198 minNaval Gazing Part 7: We’re All Sunk By A Battle Submarine By Tom Anderson The last few articles in this series have mostly focused on the idea of a neat progression of frontline naval technology...
Oct 29, 201911 minConsequences in AH: How the Scottish Liberal Democrats caused Brexit By Tom Anderson When dramatic political events take place, it is common for analysts to speculate on just what sowed the seeds for them....
Oct 22, 201910 minAlternate Terminologies: Naval Gazing Part 6- DREADNOUGHT!By Tom Anderson As discussed in the previous article in this series, the second half of the 19th century saw rapid advancement in naval...