Stakhanovite mining of the archival mother lode in June and July means I have worked my way through boxes sent to the Hartley Library from the Fleet Air Arm which contain material pertinent to Fairey in the 1930s (needless to say, the papers contained much that was relevant to before and after the decade in …
Category Archive: Uncategorized
Jun 15
Waterloo, warfare and wind tunnels
Let’s start with a shameless plug for the University’s Special Collections, the staff of which, ably led by Karen Robson, and before her Chris Woolgar, have been incredibly helpful in the writing of both my Mountbatten and Fairey biographies. This Thursday of course marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. As well as …
Apr 15
Perhaps the end of the beginning…
I’m hopeless at remembering Churchill quotes, so don’t ask me the full comment on victory at Alamein. I can just about remember the post-Barbarossa remark about if Hitler invaded hell – ‘I would at least make a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons’? One of my favourites is November 1944 and …
Feb 25
Service now properly resumed…
To quote the Daily Mirror‘s Cassandra in 1945, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted…. Five weeks ago serious illness (not mine)left me wondering when I would next work on the Fairey biography. A more stable situation means I have now returned to the project, albeit not being able to devote as …
Jan 16
Service resumed, but briefly
Technical problems meant for an extended period of time I was unable to access this blog – and there was so much to comment upon. Unfortunately, personal circumstances now mean that my focus can not be upon Fairey, or indeed any other academic matters at present. So, hopefully for not too long a period, I …
Nov 28
“There was only us…”
On the Fairey front little to report as I sit writing in the studio at the end of the garden (I’m sure we have had the predictable gag in an earlier blog). I’m almost out of the First World War, although the relevant chapter still requires my writing about CRF’s private life – getting married is …
Nov 03
Despatch from the West Midlands: the centre can not hold?
As so often over the past year I see the project slowed down as a consequence of finding myself stuck in Coventry fulfilling filial duties as my nonagenarian mother recovers from yet another avoidable stay in hospital. Thus my intention to commence writing last week was thwarted by an urgent summons to Coventry, although at least …
Oct 14
Paths to pursue (vapour trails to follow?)…
Since returning from France in mid-September the amount of time spent in my office can be counted in hours not days. Study leave may allow some time for relaxed reading and a recharging of intellectual batteries, but in an era of audit and accountability the onus is upon mining the archival coalface: what will be …
Sep 17
Colindale to Quiberon to Colindale
Two full days working my way through post-WW1 and Washington 1940-45 Fairey Company papers late in August left me quietly satisfied at how much I had uncovered prior to going on holiday for the first two weeks of this month. I shall be back at Colindale next week working through some bulky boxes I couldn’t get to …
Aug 06
Yeovilton to Cambridge to Champaign-Urbana
For someone who wrote two theses on a typewriter in the 1970s, relying upon air mail when unable to visit archives in the United States, and at home travelling frequently to a variety of libraries from the LSE to the Economics Faculty at Cambridge [‘You can read Lord Keynes’s papers, but you can’t make notes…’], e-mail and …
Adrian Smith, Emeritus Professor of Modern History, University of Southampton
