Monday 16 September 2013

A Prize, a Gift and a Guest post!


Last month I entered a Blog-comp over on Prometheus in Aspic. Max S. Foy the purveyor of this very interesting blog posed his readers a question. What to name his newly painted 25mm English Civil War artillery piece and why? I had a think and remembered this old fashioned word that I remember reading in one of my Dads history books when I was a kid.
Max liked mine the best so I won! Other entries were Big Mathilde, Sharpe Rejoinder and Apollyon. My entry was Clapperdudgeon, which means, a Chief beggar, and what a better chief beggar (at the time of course?) but King Charlie himself!!!
My prize was copy of “A General Plague of Madness, The Civil Wars in Lancashire 1640-1660” by Stephen Bull.
And what a great looking book it is too!
Preface
“The towns and fields of Lancashire witnessed bloody fighting on and off for almost a decade in the 1640’s. The English Civil Wars found one of their most important battlegrounds right here in the county, as Englishmen (and sometimes Scots) fought desperately over the political future of the nation and the fate of Kings. Neighbours, fathers, sons and friends took up arms against each other, for King or for Parliament. Lancaster was burned, Liverpool was stormed, the people of Bolton were massacred, and every Lancastrian was affected by economic chaos, pillaging, plague, disruption and distress.”
So thank you very much Mr Foy!!!

The second book in the photo above was a prize on Edwin’s blog Thoughts of a Depressed Diplomat, myself and Fran both quite fancied the book and the usual slanging match then ensued, as to who would win the prize, with other bloggers (no names mentioned) also joining the fray. Unfortunately neither me nor Fran won the book in question, The Khyber Rifles, From the British Raj to Al Qaeda, by Jules Stewart.
Part of the Preface
“Jules Stewart tells the incredible story of Colonel Sir Robert Warburton, the man who raised the Khyber Rifles in 1878, and describes the Rifles in action, in particular in the 1847 Frontier uprising and the Third Afghan War.”

A couple of days ago I received an email from Edwin, saying that one of his readers purchased several of the books and wanted to give one to me!!! Fantastic! So a big thank you has to go out to Edwin and my mysterious benefactor, who wants to remain anonymous??
The only trouble is, that git Fran’s also got the same mysterious benefactor, so now I can’t rub his nose in it…..Damn it!


Lastly I was asked to write a few guest posts for the newish blog run by Messrs Hilton and Harrison, the co-authors of Beneath the Lily Banners "The League of Augsberg", My first guest post is up today, so if you fancy reading more about the Grand Alliance, NYW, League of Augsberg to name but three of the names of the period, click the link above. And do join the blog too,especially if your thinking about starting a new period???


46 comments:

  1. Good for your, Ray. Have a great read with those. Dean

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  2. as a professor of literature I do love seeing people interested in books :)

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    1. As a wargamer and lover of history its a must!

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  3. Congrats on the prizes, and a guest post. Sweet!

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  4. Congrats on the prizes and the guest post Ray!

    And let noone accuse you of being a clapperdudgeon!

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  5. read your post this morning very nice and well doen on the prizes
    Peace James

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  6. Cool prize and a great name for the artillery piece.
    Guest posting. cool.
    cheers

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  7. Congrats on the prizes and your guest posts.

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  8. Well done Ray. Good choice of name and well thought out.

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  9. A general plague of madness is a brilliant book. As a Lancastrian who has research my family tree I have managed to trace my mothers paternal line back to 1620 and found records of ancestors who fought around west derby and the storming of liverpool. Some Royalist some Parliment. A period of history that I absolutely love, research, have re-enacted and wargame. Enjoy the book immensly Ray.

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  10. "What's that Fran ? -The competition was rigged ?"

    Congrats on the win Ray and good book review.

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  12. I've never heard of the word Clapperdudgeon. Congratulations on getting the book!

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  13. Congratulations on the win Ray.

    I have to read a post by you twice in the same day? Why oh why did I log onto Blogger today!!

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  14. Congrats with the win Ray!

    Greetings
    Peter

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  15. You are a really lucky man, sir! Very interesting books.

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  16. "Clapperdudgeon" really is a cool sounding word. You seem to have a knack for winning the contests. Congrats!

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    1. I do like the word, that's probably why I remembered it. I do seem to have a bit of luck, your right!

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  17. Congrats Ray! Maybe you'll win some twinkies soon. Or maybe Fran will and maybe he'll share them with you. I mean, I wouldn't hold my breath or anything, but you can hope!

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    1. I hope I win some Twinkies, if Fran wins he won't share them cos he's a bit of a piggy!!

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  18. Nicely won good sir! Yep you'll find the book on the ECW in Lancs a reet good read. And we people of Bolton were indeed massacred,still we where on the winning side eventually ;-)

    Jason.

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    1. It does sound a good book, I'm looking forward to reading it.

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  19. Cheers Andy, and I'll try not to let my head swell toooo much!

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