Since everyone's talking about #Shogun, a quick thread about the fictional John Blackthorne - who was based on a real character.
He was called William Adams, hence the title of my book, Samurai William... 1/12 Born in Kent, Adams sailed to the East Indies with a five-ship Dutch fleet in 1598.
But... disaster.
The ships were shipwrecked or captured. And Adams' ship ended up in the Pacific.
No food. No water. Storms & sickness.
But then they sighted Japan.
It was April 1600. 2/12

Most people have a jar of nutmeg lurking somewhere in their kitchen cupboards.

They use it at Christmas, for mulled wine, or for making béchamel sauce.

But few are aware of the extraordinary history of this neglected spice... 1/6 Four hundred years ago, this was the most valued spice in the world.

The Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and English fought battles in their attempt to control the nutmeg trade.

You see, nutmeg only grew on six islands in the world - the Banda Islands in today's Indonesia. 2/6

From a friend in Moscow - well worth reading, I think, for the opinion on the streets. [translated]

"There are few reasons to find solace in such dreadful times as these, but I think I have found at least one: Russians are not fooled.
"I arrived last Tuesday in Moscow... 1/7 "...I was able to observe and listen to the reactions of people (my family, my friends, taxi drivers, old ladies on buses, social media) comparing them to the official Russian state media.
"I think the Kremlin's internal communication strategy is a failure. Unlike in 2014...2/7

#ForgottenPeople Few people can claim to have cooked for a dictator and even fewer for two dictators.
But Spiridon Ivanovich Putin has an even greater claim to fame. Not only was he chef to Lenin and Stalin, he was also the grandfather of Vladimir Putin. 1/4 His role was unknown until the Russian leader spoke about him in a recent documentary.
Putin revealed how Spiridon cooked for both Soviet leaders when they were on holiday at a dacha outside Moscow. 2/4

#ForgottenPeople Lt-Col Edwin Darling was confident he ran the most secure POW camp in Britain.
Camp 198 in South Wales was surrounded by high-wire fences and searchlights and guarded by dogs.
There was good reason for the security... 1/4 By 1945 the camp housed 2,000 German POWs, including elite SS commanders and two field marshals, Gerd von Rundstedt & Erich von Manstein.
Darling knew that any successful escape would be a propaganda disaster. 2/4

#ForgottenPeople Angela Burdett-Coutts was - said King Edward VII - ‘after my mother, the most remarkable woman in the kingdom’.
One of the UK’s greatest philanthropists, she devoted her life to helping those in poverty. 1/4 Together with Charles Dickens, she founded a safe house for bused and dispossessed women.
She bankrolled charities in Africa, Australia, the Middle East and Borneo, and financed Florence Nightingale’s work in the Crimea. 2/4

Fake History – a short thread.
One of the perennially best-selling books about D-Day is called D-Day Through German Eyes, by Holger Eckhertz. It contains graphic accounts from Germans in the frontline of battle. 1/10 It’s so good that it doesn’t ring true. At least, it didn't to me.
Eckhertz claims that the accounts were collected by his journalist grandfather, Dieter Eckhertz. But there are no records of this elder Eckhertz 2/10