On Sunday 23 October 1642, at Edgehill during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, Parliament and the Royalists met on the field of battle. In an inconclusive engagement, both sides left the field largely intact, but one man’s name would be known throughout England.

On 27th February 2022, three days after the Russians invaded Ukraine, President Zelensky sent out the call for volunteers from abroad to join the Ukrainians in resisting Putin’s so called special military operation.

This month’s film club is the Terrence Malick 1998 masterpiece The Thin Red Line starring Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Jim Caviezel, John Cusack, John Travolta and Woody Harrelson, among many others.

In 1795 the Admiralty established the Royal Navy’s Hydrography office, which became the world leader in charting the waters of the globe, as ships of the line sailed the oceans, pursuing their traditional enemy, the French.

On 13 June of this year, one month ago, Israeli forces launched aerial and drone attacks on Iran thus beginning what is now called the Twelve Day War or the Iran-Israel War.

This week three writers join to talk summer reading recommendations from the world of history and historical fiction.

On 6 August 1945 the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, approached Hiroshima and opened up its bomb doors. Once its payload dropped, the city was engulfed with blinding light and a huge explosion produced a giant mushroom cloud.

Horace was one of ancient Rome’s most celebrated lyric poets. He lived through the turbulent transition from Republic to Empire and became closely associated with Emperor Augustus’s regime.

Latest film club is the Maya epic from Mel Gibson. With a cast of unknowns, it put the civilisation overshadowed by the Aztecs back on the map.

Boudicca, Cleopatra, Artemisia and Olympias are just a few if the many women of the ancient world that we know about, but it’s significant that we know about them from male writers. That gives a certain perspective, not necessarily inaccurate, but it can be.

On 20 November 1917, after a bombardment of the trenches near the town of Cambrai, German troops prepared for an attack by their British opponents. Out of the gloom emerged steel mechanised vehicles. The tank. Within minutes the Germans were overrun and the Mark IV tank had achieved its first stunning victory, a major milestone for this military innovation.

In March 1992 in Vilnius, Lithuania, an old man walked into the recently established British Embassy, holding a bag containing sausages. But those sausages were concealing documents liberated from the KGB archives in Moscow, and the old man was Vasili Mitrokhin, chief archivist of Russia’s secret police.

May’s Film club double bill is The Report, Scott Z. Burn’s movie on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into the CIA’s torture program

In April 1945, during Operation Howard in enemy occupied territory, troops of the SAS were ambushed by German Panzerfausts. Several were pinned down and they suffered heavy losses. Along came Paddy Mayne who, in an act of suicidal bravery, drove along an open road to reach his men, all the while giving and taking fire.

Film Club for May is Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow’s controversial film of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

Early in the morning of 25th June 1950 the Korean People’s Army – the North Koreans – crossed the 38th parallel and the Korean War had begun.

On 15 March 1877 play began between England and Australia in Melbourne. So began an extraordinary tradition of the finest form of sport: the Test Match.

On 6th June 1944 the British 3rd Division landed on Sword Beach, Normandy, as they joined Canadian, American and other allied troops in the liberation of Europe. Progress was not easy for the British troops as they suffered heavy loss

In early May of 1941, in the deserts of Iraq that had seen the armies of Alexander battle Darius, a force of 9000 Arabs and Iraqis descended on the small British airfield of Habbinayah.

At 1830 hours on 4th May 1945, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery accepted the unconditional surrender of German forces in northwestern Europe from Admiral Hans Georg von Friedeberg.

On the afternoon of 6 March 1988 in Gibraltar on the southern tip of the Iberial peninsular, Mairead Farrell and two other Provisional IRA volunteers of were shot dead by members of the Special Air Service.

At the end of the Second World War Asian colonies were desperate for independence: India, Burma, Indochina, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies all boasted independence movements that now demanded autonomy.

On 8 June 1982 the Sir Galahad troop ship was about to offload the Welsh Guards at Bluff Cove in the Falkland Islands. As the guardsmen were waiting, an Argentine Skyhawk attacked and the Galahad was hit. 48 men were killed, and 97 wounded, among them Simon Weston.

This month’s movie is Downfall, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel and starring Bruno Ganz, the depiction of the last days of Adolf Hitler as we reach the 80th anniversary.

In August 1941 Army Group North of the Wehrmacht approached the suburbs of Leningrad, as St. Petersburg was called. Within days the city was surrounded, and would remain so for nearly two and a half years.