Washminster

Washminster
Washminster

Sunday 17 April 2011

Holiday Reading

English Universities and Colleges have broken up for the Easter Holiday - as have the four Houses of the Westminster Parliament and the US Congress. So it's time for a break from daily reading of Roll Call and Politico, and the many excellent books about the workings of Parliament and Congress. (However Amazon are rushing to me some further books to ensure that I don't get stuck for future reading).

It's time to think about a bit of holiday reading. Over the winter I have made a number of trips to Huntingdon. One of my favourite places to visit is the Oliver Cromwell Museum. Cromwell was born and brought up in the town. The museum is not his birthplace (a plaque on The Friars, in the northern end of the High Street records the claim that he was born there), but the building in which he attended school.

For my holiday reading, I am going through some of the books I picked up at the museum. I have started with Christopher Hill's "God's Englishman". Following that I will read Barry Coward's - "Profiles in Power: Cromwell", then a book about his roots in Huntingdonshire (no longer a county in it's ownn right, but swallowed up into Cambridgeshire) - called "Risen from Obscurity?" by Caroline Clifford and Alan Akeroyd. If I have time I will re-read Antonia fraser's "Cromwell: Our Chief of Men"