Found a small castle ruin I wasn’t expecting on my morning walk. Neville Castle in Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, was a 15th-century high-status stone hunting lodge and manor house held by the powerful Neville family.

Helmsley Castle. Started in 1120, the castle was built on an outcrop of rock on the north bank of the River Rye in North Yorkshire. Survived the Wars of the Roses but slighted in the Civil Wars. Still a significant castle worth visiting. balkandave.blogspot.com/2026/03/helm...

Würfel: “In an Istanbul market, I came across an old German phrase book – and a reminder of how not to speak to migrants.” In 1933, the traffic was reversed. Lots of Germans in Istanbul, bringing key skills. Spot on about reversed sentences in Turkish! www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Alan Carr has bought a Scottish castle. Could you? "It's got no moat but it has got a little railway I can drive around," No moat? Demand a refund 😂. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Helmsley Castle in North Yorkshire this afternoon. The original wood castle was rebuilt in stone in 1186 by Robert de Ros. Later turned into a Tudor mansion and slighted during the civil war after a siege.

Does no one with a brain bother briefing the VP about how a nuclear weapon works? Or is he just making it up as he goes.

Off the painting bench this week, 28mm Grenzer for my 1737-39 project. No regimental uniforms in this period, but did have regional styles. Eagle Miniatures.

Book review: Vlad - C.C. Humphreys' fictional take on the life of Vlad Tepes, better known as 'The Impaler' or Dracula. Sticks fairly close to the historical record. A good example of history being stranger than fiction in what was a remarkable life. balkandave.blogspot.com/2026/03/vlad...

Bellamy steels Wales for last World Cup push. “I love history, it was one of the few subjects I enjoyed in school. I knew a lot about Bosnia because of what happened in the early 90s. I’ve always been ­interested in the Balkan region.” Top man! www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Starting a pinned thread for my work, since I'm no longer on academia .edu! My first monograph, "From Slaves to Prisoners of War: The Ottoman Empire, Russia, and International Law" (Oxford, 2018) Int'l law wasn't just from in the West! And neither was Ottoman abolition. tinyurl.com/PoWsBook

Austrian v British at the club today. Black Powder Napoleonic in 28mm. The Brits found the village first and their cavalry swept the Austrians from the field. Galloping at everything actually worked!

OTD in 1852, the Balkan Marshal, Auguste de Marmont, died. The last of Napoleon's Marshals to pass away, and in my view the finest. The most rounded of the Marshals, he had streets named after him in Croatia until WW2. Best painting too! balkandave.blogspot.com/2024/11/marm...

Book review: 1956: The Year That Changed Britain. I couldn’t agree more, as it is the year of my birth😂. Lots of topical events, Suez, Cyprus and Hungary. Jim Laker’s 19 for 90 against Australia. But the lasting legacy was the decline of deference. balkandave.blogspot.com/2026/03/1956...

‘A fascinating discovery’: research challenges Battle of Hastings narrative. Harold may have sailed, not marched, in 1066, reshaping explanations for his defeat in England’s historic battle. www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...

Off the painting bench this week. Austrian cuirassiers for 1739. Front Rank figures in 28mm. Palffy’s Cuirassiers were in the front rank at the Battle of Grocka on 22 July 1739 and suffered heavy casualties from Ottoman fire.

'Outlander effect' hailed as record numbers flock to attractions. Whatever it takes I suppose, and non-film related sites are also getting big increases in visitor numbers. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2595236...

My lunchtime reading is ‘1956’. History and allies eh!

Who were the ‘peasants’ of the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt? New database shows how geographically widespread the revolt was and the depth of the social strata, including men, women and soldiers. theconversation.com/who-were-the...

Len Deighton, spy novelist and author of The Ipcress File, dies aged 97. Good as his spy books were, we should not forget his very readable WW2 books. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...

Why some people still believe that aliens shaped ancient civilisations. Through rigorous scholarship and compelling storytelling, archaeology shows that the extraordinary was never alien. It was always human. theconversation.com/why-some-peo...

Book review: Strategies of Ukrainian War by Vladimir Shirogorov. The conflict among Russia, Poland, and the Ottomans from 1500 to 1800. There is a lot a great content in the narrative, even if the strategy lens is a bit convoluted. Also needed editing. balkandave.blogspot.com/2026/03/stra...

Saint Patrick’s Day and the mystery of the second Patrick. According to one tradition, both men knew one another closely and were each involved in promulgating Christianity in Ireland. theconversation.com/saint-patric...

Russia’s relentless interference since start of Ukraine war has failed to break Moldova. Beyond simple survival, Moldova seems to have emerged stronger from the challenges it has faced. I was impressed by their IT and cultural services during my visit. theconversation.com/russias-rele...

Book review: Putin's Mercenaries by Mark Galeotti. The story of Russian private security companies that gave Putin a flexible and deniable military arm as he began to intervene, not just on Russia's borders, but further afield in Syria and Africa. balkandave.blogspot.com/2026/03/puti...

French-Indian War at the Irvine club today. It’s snowing, which fits the hailstones coming down outside. Black Powder scenario with Roger’s Rangers holding the tree line.

Remains of Roman fortlet found under house gardens in Bearsden (north of Glasgow). The Antonine Wall was built after AD 142 by the Roman Army on the orders of its emperor Antoninus Pius. If it was our garden I would be very excited - my wife less so😂. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Off the painting bench this week, the first Austrians for my 1738 project. Unusually for me, I did two units at once to try the contrast paints for the first time. I like the grey tinge, as that was the colour under the blanco, but I would have preferred more shading. Front Rank Miniatures.

The postie delivered my author’s copy of this new book from Helion on British Amphibious Warfare. Apart from my own chapter on the Adriatic, it is full of potential wargame scenarios for gamers who don’t mind getting their feet wet. Time to dust down those boats again.

700 years since conquest of Bursa marks turning point in Ottoman rise. The siege of Bursa continued for 23 years. Ottoman forces established surrounding fortifications to tighten control over the area and restrict the movement of supplies and troops. www.turkiyetoday.com/culture/700-...

Why Friday the 13th was bad luck for the Knights Templar and their legacy. A series of confessions, obtained under torture have shaped the order’s legacy in film. theconversation.com/why-friday-t...

Iran’s cultural heritage in the crossfire – expert explains what has been damaged and what could be lost. As we also saw in Gaza, Palmyra and Afghanistan. Irreplaceable heritage lost. theconversation.com/irans-cultur...

Zulu Dawn, strangely back in cinemas, review – fine ensemble cast show arrogance that led to British imperial disaster. They are overwhelmed by sheer numbers, and ammunition is finite. As one soldier says: “Bullets run out – and those spears don’t.” www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ma...

Superb Kisimul Castle, on its own small island off the village of Castlebay on the Isle of Barra in the Western Isles. Its origins probably date back a thousand years and part of it may be an even earlier chapel built by St Cieran. More pics and info: www.undiscoveredscot... #Scotland WesternIsles

Cultural appropriation? How westerners have worn Indigenous clothing for a variety of reasons throughout history. Paintings from the past are complicated artefacts, but perhaps time to reclassify them as examples that some, but not all, Britons actually did adapt. theconversation.com/cultural-app...

Malaya 1942 at the club today. My opponent got a trip to Singapore at Xmas, which is an opportunity to dust these armies down. Not a good start, my Japanese Ha-Go tank has been immobilised by a fluke mortar shot.

From Bush Sr to Trump: the risks, lessons of US interference in the Middle East. Since WW2 the US has set out to oust a government in the Middle East on average once a decade, and on almost every occasion it has left the country, and the US, worse off. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Book review: Borderlines by Lewis Baston. This is a mixture of travel and history as he visits 29 famous and obscure European borders, debunking territorial revisionism. If there is one message from this brilliant book, it is to leave borders well alone. balkandave.blogspot.com/2026/03/bord...

The Eastern Question through diplomatic eyes - The Invention of the Eastern Question: Sir Robert Liston and Ottoman Diplomacy in the Age of Revolutions by Ozan Ozavci. Liston was the British Ambassador to Constantinople. ceureviewofbooks.com/review/the-e...

Nearly missed World Book Day. Here are a few.

Fight for the Steppe: The Russo-Ottoman Wars. I have been discussing the late 18thC wars with the hosts on the excellent Prime and Load podcast. You can hear even more if you sign up for their War Room on Patreon. www.patreon.com/posts/fight-...

I’ve spent years, decades, obsessing over the Bush Administration’s Iraq WMD lies, writing about them, debunking them. I can think of no lie about Iraq WMDs told by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al that comes even close to the enormity and absurdity of this lie from Donald Trump.

Fight for the Steppe: The Russo-Ottoman Wars. I have been discussing the late 18thC wars with the hosts on the excellent Prime and Load podcast. You can hear even more if you sign up for their War Room on Patreon. www.patreon.com/posts/fight-...

Book launch: The War for Anatolia and the remaking of International Order. This looks interesting. royalhistsoc.org/calendar/boo...

What would Winston Churchill make of war with Iran? This assumes Trump has read any history, which his ramblings indicate he hasn’t. Churchill once observed that war, once unleashed, rarely follows the tidy paths imagined by those who start it. theconversation.com/what-would-w...

Off the painting bench this week, Italian Bersaglieri for the 1911 invasion of Tripoli. Converted from Pendraken Miniatures, although I singularly failed sculpt convincing cockerel feathers from green stuff in 10mm. My fingers are too large! Back to 28mm this week.

Book review: Ottoman - This is Alan Savage's fictional take on the Ottomans from Mehmed the Conqueror to Lepanto. He uses an English renegade family to tell the story, and a cracking good read it is. balkandave.blogspot.com/2026/03/otto...

A 2,850-year-old mass grave in Serbia reveals a shift in prehistoric violence. In other prehistoric mass graves, children and young women are often underrepresented because of their value as slaves or for reproduction. Gomolava is a clear exception. theconversation.com/a-2-850-year...

My lunchtime reading is Lewis Baston’s ‘Borderlines’. There is cracking line in the chapter on the Polish/Ukrainian border, which applies more generally. “There are few geopolitical situations that cannot be worsened by an Englishman branding a map and a pen.’🥲😢

My lunchtime reading is Lewis Baston’s ‘Borderlines’. There is cracking line in the chapter on the Polish/Ukrainian border, which applies more generally. “There are few geopolitical situations that cannot be worsened by an Englishman branding a map and a pen.’🥲😢

Just finished a painting session listening and watching the Sean Bean and Bernard Cornwell interview on @napwarspod.bsky.social podcast. Just brilliant. Appropriate as Sean Bean’s first engagement with the Napoleonic Wars was painting Airfix figures of the period.