Tag: history

Six-minute summary: Mary Somerville

Hello readers! If you live outside Scotland, you might not have heard of Mary Somerville, a Scottish polymath who wrote five best-selling books in the 1800s, making science accessible to the masses. She was primarily a skilled mathematician, but she studied the natural world, and was an advocate for the education of women. Luckily for … Continue reading Six-minute summary: Mary Somerville →

Six-minute summary: John Harrison

Hello readers! It’s time for another six-minute summary. Today we’re exploring the life of John Harrison, an eighteenth-century English clockmaker. If you’ve heard of him already, it is likely in the context of the “longitude problem” which hindered ocean navigation for most of human history. John Harrison’s solution was a clock with unparallelled time-keeping capabilities … Continue reading Six-minute summary: John Harrison →

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) is weirder than I remembered

Hello readers! Last weekend I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis, having not picked up the book since I was about ten years old. This book is possibly the first fantasy story that I ever read, and I have fond memories of it – and for the Chronicles of … Continue reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) is weirder than I remembered →

Blog plans for 2026

Hello readers! Happy new year! I’d like to post a quick update regarding upcoming projects on this blog. I’m not planning any major overhauls of its structure: all posts will remain related to science fiction and fantasy (sometimes tangentially). But last year, some of my favourite post formats were underused, with only two six-minute summaries … Continue reading Blog plans for 2026 →

Six-minute summary: Marie Tharp

Hello readers! It’s time for the final six-minute summary of 2025. We’ll be exploring the pioneering work of Marie Tharp, an American geologist and cartographer who created the first maps of the sea floor. She did this in the 1950s, without any computer assistance, by interpreting thousands of depth measurements collected by research ships. Her … Continue reading Six-minute summary: Marie Tharp →

Clayton goes to Lincolnshire

Hello readers! I recently went on holiday to Lincolnshire. It’s a part of the UK not typically regarded as a holiday destination, except by those still loyal enough to visit the coastal metropolis of Skegness. However, my family and I resisted the allure of holidaying at a North-Sea-facing Butlins, and instead opted to spend a … Continue reading Clayton goes to Lincolnshire →

Clayton goes to Crete (Part Two)

Hello readers! In my last post, I recounted my hike down the Samaria Gorge on the island of Crete, Greece. It was an incredible experience, and certainly the highlight of the holiday – but I wanted to share a few of my other Crete adventures, too. For the most part, this wasn’t an adrenalin-fuelled, up-at-the-crack-of-dawn, … Continue reading Clayton goes to Crete (Part Two) →

The Last Man (1826) is a miserable read…

Hello readers! I recently finished reading The Last Man, a dystopian novel written in 1826 by Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. I first learnt of this book’s existence when I was researching the origins of science fiction, as The Last Man is often listed as the earliest example of the dystopian, apocalyptic genre. The … Continue reading The Last Man (1826) is a miserable read… →

Updates and a Lego cathedral

Hello readers! Apologies for the recent lack of posts, but I have been very busy with work – not only of the “earn-money-to-stay-alive” variety, but of the “unpaid-but-career-imperative” variety. Thankfully, I’m still enjoying my somewhat quirky real-life job, but there can be no denying its erosional effect on my free time… I’m working on the … Continue reading Updates and a Lego cathedral →