Corona at Westminster Abbey

On Thursday, I was fortunate to be invited to the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey where the Dean, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, unveiled a new exhibition of his proposal to construct a Corona on the roof of the Abbey. The Corona will be above the Crossing where monarchs have been crowned since 1066 and it is hoped that it will be in place by 2013, the 60th anniversary of Elizabeth II’s accession. What is especially interesting about the exhibition is that it shows that alterations to the Abbey’s architecture have taken place with great regularity from the beginning. Some of the very greatest church architects have made their mark on the Abbey, including Wren, Hawksmoor and Gilbert Scott. In that sense, the Dean’s plans are wholly in keeping with the Abbey’s remarkable history. Equally exciting is the announcement that Triforium, the Abbey’s upper gallery is to be opened to the public. John Betjeman described its view as the finest in Europe. The exhibition is free and opens to the public tomorrow. Visitors are positively encouraged to comment on the proposals and to make their own suggestions.

What is a Corona?

According to Answers.com, a Corona is 'The overhanging vertical member of a cornice, supported by the bed moldings and crowned by the cymatium; usually with a drip to throw rainwater clear of the building.' Learn more about Coronas and Cornices.

On the subject of Westminster Abbey, our August edition will feature an article, written by the distinguished medievalist William Chester Jordan, about Richard de Ware, Abbot of Westminster in the 13th century, and his great rivalry with the Abbot of St-Denis in Paris.

Michael Jackson and Patrick Hennessey on BBC Radio 4

I doubt whether Michael Jackson, the popular entertainer who died last Thursday, is of enormous interest to the readers of History Today. So I will comment no further than to note that he was described on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme as the equal of Mozart and Beethoven among the ranks of musical genius (which begs the question, which of his songs is the equivalent of one of Beethoven’s late string quartets), and that his death has received and will continue to receive greater coverage than the current events in Iran. Let us not despair though, for the same BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week has provided a remarkable insight into the life and mind of an elite soldier. Patrick Hennessey’s The Junior Officers’ Reading Club: Killing Time and Fighting Wars (Allen Lane) paints a remarkable picture of modern soldiering not least because it demonstrates what many choose not to believe: that a great number of soldiers, and this has been the case throughout history, like fighting, or ‘scrapping’ as Hennessey calls it. Uncomfortable but true.

Charles Arnold-Baker Dies

The death has been announced of Charles Arnold-Baker, author of The Companion to British History. An interview with Charles is contained in our forthcoming July edition, which went to press shortly before he died. Our commiserations and thoughts go out to his wife Fanny and his son and daughter. The Companion remains a lasting tribute to this brilliant and original man.

How Frightfully Un-British

A number of historians comment in today’s Guardian upon the British National Party’s success in the elections to the European Parliament. The two seats gained by the BNP in the north of England represent the first time that a National Socialist party has attained parliamentary seats in Britain. It is particularly ironic that the BNP should be successful on the weekend that Britain celebrated its involvement in the D-Day landings 65 years ago when Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen landed in Normandy to begin the long and arduous campaign to rid western Europe of Nazi tyranny. The historians’ consensus seems to be that while upsetting and worthy of caution, the BNP’s success reflects more the collapse of the Labour Party’s vote in working-class areas than it does any great shift in support to the BNP (whose rise in support has actually fallen a little). Britain feels diminished nevertheless.

Brown the Historian

It is alleged that former Prime Minister Anthony ‘Tony’ Blair voiced to his mentor Roy Jenkins the regret that he had not studied history. He thought a greater engagement with the past might have made him a better politician. It is a claim made repeatedly by historians, most recently and most eloquently by John Tosh in his Why History Matters (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). It is mirrored in another appeal of historians, that the study of their subject produces a more critical and engaged electorate. It’s a view I generally endorse.

But what to make of Gordon Brown? He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a first class degree in history yet he has become, by some stretch, the worst prime minister in living memory. John Major (who had no university education at all) looks positively Churchillian in comparison. Brown went on to gain a PhD, also from Edinburgh, for his study of Labour politics in Scotland in the interwar years. Is that the clue, the parochialism of Brown’s interest in history?