Non-Fiction Archives - Pilgrim House

A Village in the Third Reich: How Ordinary Lives Were Transformed By the Rise of Fascism by Julia Boyd & Angelika Patel

Since the end of the second World War in 1945, we've heard various accounts of life under the Nazis, predominantly from leading historians telling about the brutality of the regime…

By Tom Stanger August 22, 2022BooksNo Comments

Books

Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation by Kris Manjapra

“Voids are complex because they are nothing at all, and yet everything at once,” writes Kris Manjapra in his new book, Black Ghost of Empire: the Long Death of Slavery and…

By Lake Markham August 22, 2022BooksNo Comments

Books

Three Women of Herat by Veronica Doubleday

I think I share a common conception, or misconception, of Afghanistan, a country that has always seemed distant, alien and mysterious to many of us, which is more likely to…

By Tom Stanger August 15, 2022BooksNo Comments

Books

Birds and Us by Tim Birkhead

For me, a new title by Tim Birkhead has been a must-read ever since I came across his The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Birds a few years…

By Ian Tattum August 3, 2022BooksNo Comments

Words

Magic at the Minack

All eyes turned to the sea where, just to the left of the actor’s head, a basking shark was swimming, quite leisurely, past. Welcome to the Minack Theatre in the…

By Gayle Wood July 31, 2022WordsNo Comments

Books

Thunderstone by Nancy Campbell

Lockdown wasn’t easy for most people, but Nancy Campbell left her home and relocated to a caravan on the outskirts of Oxford. This may sound idyllic, but Campbell’s account of…

By Emma Russell July 25, 2022BooksNo Comments

Books

Rhythms of Nature by Ian Carter

Yesterday I was in the marvellous Etches Collection in Kimmeridge. Along the walls are examples of marine fossils and explanations about what we know about the lives of the animals…

By Ian Tattum June 27, 2022BooksNo Comments

Books

The Hill of Devi by E. M. Forster

To my shame I hadn't read anything by E.M. Forster, but there was something about The Hill of Devi that I found encapsulating, enigmatic in its description that encouraged me…

By Tom Stanger June 17, 2022BooksNo Comments

Words

Pears and heirs

There is a gothic beauty to Gregg’s Pit orchard in early April. Filigree branches, pregnant with buds, are etched against a bruised sky. Perry pear trees tower over their cider…

By Karen Heaney June 1, 2022WordsNo Comments

Words

A Dark and Stormy Night

Nightfall on the last day of January 1938. A heavy Atlantic swell rolls in from the northwest. The steamship Alba, carrying coal to Mussolini’s factories in Italy and a crew…

By Gayle Wood June 1, 2022WordsNo Comments