Blogging Anniversary - 10 years

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A while ago I checked when I did my first blog post, in order to celebrate with an anniversary post. Well, that day came and went without any reaction from me. Better late than never, so here a reminder of my very first blog post from 24 October 2012.  The book was New Finnish Grammar  by Diego Marani. Marani is an Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist. While working as a translator for the European Union he invented a language ‘Europanto’ which is a mixture of languages and based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU languages. It was a suitable book to start with, being a book about letters, languages and memories. With a beautiful prose, the novel went directly to my heart.  "One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can ide...
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Richard III and the quest to find his grave

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I have just finished my course on England in the time of Richard III with Future Learn. Quite suitable, on the day after his reinternment in Leicester cathedral. If you did not manage to see anything - and is interested - you can watch some key videos here.

It was an interesting course, very accessible, meaning, not too academic. Mixed with texts, videos and discussion forum, it covered the whole range of society, food and living habits, clothing, manuscripts, religion and in the end the whole fantastic story of how the grave of Richard III was found, in a car park in 2012. Philippa Langley was the person behind the quest, and she wrote the book The Search for Richard III - The King's Grave together with Michael Jones who added the historical background to his life (review here). I will visit England in April and will definitely put Leicester on my itinerary.

The course also opened up my eyes to all the fantastic archives that are now available on-line. That will be something to explore further.

I have still not read Shakespeare's Richard III. However, I now know he was biased by Henry VII and his times to put Richard III in a bad light, but that means I have to read it with an open mind and compare his text with what I know now.



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