“No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.”
Doctor Samuel Johnson
Well, I guess that I must be a blockhead!
During my working life I became accustomed to writing reports and even wrote a technical book, with the distinctly unexciting title Performance Assurance for IT Systems. As work gradually declined, I began writing about a couple of subjects that interested me: the Edinburgh Festival and allotments.
From there, things rather expanded.
Nowadays I spend some of my time researching subjects that interest me and turning the results into potted histories. I rely largely on existing published material rather than original research. The principal purpose is to keep the little grey cells moving, as Poirot might put it. If other people find the results worth reading, that is a welcome bonus.
From July 2026 I have also recently acquired a new research assistant in the form of ChatGPT. It is useful for suggesting lines of enquiry, bringing together background information and commenting on drafts. I do not simply accept what it produces: information is checked where necessary, and I remain responsible for the content that appears on the site.
The histories are intended for the general reader. They sit somewhere between the relatively short overviews commonly found on the Internet and full-length books. Their length varies considerably according to the subject: some run to perhaps 5,000 or 6,000 words, while others are considerably longer. They do not pretend to be academic works.
I have three fairly simple objectives: to make each piece informative, readable and reasonably well placed in its wider context.
For anyone who wishes to explore a subject further, I normally include a bibliography or suggestions for further reading, together with links to relevant material elsewhere on the web.
Fortunately, I tend to write only about subjects in which I already have some interest or background knowledge. Otherwise, there would probably be considerably more of this stuff.
If you have arrived here by serendipity, I hope that you may find something that interests you.
A note about links
Links on the Internet have an unfortunate habit of disappearing or changing address. Where there is a choice, I therefore tend to favour established sources such as Wikipedia, Britannica and major institutions, which are rather more likely to remain available.
Nevertheless, broken links are inevitable. I would be grateful if you would let me know if you come across one.
A note about following the site
This is a WordPress site and therefore offers the option to follow or subscribe to it. However, most of my histories are published as pages rather than posts.
WordPress normally notifies followers about new posts, but not about new pages. Following the site is therefore not a reliable way of being informed when I add a new potted history.
A note about AI Assistance
AI Assistance provides background information on how I have been using AI. Articles where I have used AI have a little AI Assist flag next to the name in the list of articles which can be found on the Welcome page.