Every family history is unique and the brutal bar brawl detailed in this seaman’s story came after a month of fierce Atlantic gales that drove Tyne-based cargo boats 100s of miles off-course, flying the signal “Not under command” because “we could just not steer”… They were heading for the Eastern seaboard of the USA. But […]

by Terry Walker 04032024 6 minute read There were surprising revelations when a family history researcher discovered her innkeeper ancestors’ secret of the Peterboat inn. What the innkeeping ancestors had been up to for 300 years at the fishing village at the mouth of the River Thames was revealed in a 130 year-old official report […]

A secret agent served Britain and four terror groups in 1950s Cyprus but 30 years later he discovers how his multiple PSYOP roles brought peace to the strife-torn island-of-spies, Cyprus. Armed with a 9mm Sten sub-machine gun and a pistol he was ever-ready for action, but never fired a shot in anger. by Kevin Barnett […]

By Julia Jayden Wells 03042024 7 minute read A fairy tale grand hotel that welcomed Royalty became haunted after the mysterious deaths of guests and the three brothers who owned it. The Berengaria Hotel in Cyprus has been padlocked and decaying for 40 years and now ghosts have secured five stars for the totally derelict […]

One language of ancient Syria was Aramaic, as spoken at the time of Jesus of Nazareth and unchanged even today in remote mountains. It was the language of Jesus, his disciples and most of the people who attended their gigs. It has survived changing dynasties and remains the language of Christians and Muslims who live […]

I had requested a camel train to take us across the Syrian Desert to Palmyra, the hometown of the legendary Warrior Queen Zenobia whose ancestry is unclear. She may have been raised as the daughter of her brother who had married the widow of her father who was the brother of them both. Palmyra was […]

The kidnap, torture and murder of farm labourer Richard Hawkins in 1748 was the beginning of the end for the most notorious smugglers gang operating along England’s South Coast. Within a year the Hawkhurst Gang had added two more murders and large amounts of back-door goods to their tally. The King’s Men were closing in […]

He could still hear the shouts of the pursuing Cossack troops as he waded out into the cold sea, his long woollen underwear clinging to his strong body. Soon the rocky beach slipped from under his feet and he began to swim out to sea. Away on his right, he could just make out the […]

1972: BOOM as millions flash their new plastic. 1974: BUST Inflation and bailed out by IMF. When your work worries government ministers and MPs and generates the highest amount of correspondence The Times business section had ever received, it pays to have some strong backing to justify the meticulous verbalism. Especially when an attack dog […]

My very own Aphrodite was standing next to me in the glistening sea. We had just a few more minutes to prepare. Me, getting more pan stick onto her white bits with a sponge and then spreading it evenly to match the surrounding suntanned body. She, adjusting her brown wig to replicate Renaissance paintings of […]