Northlander Lady Ellen Elizabeth Reed, was a World War II code-cracker who held a senior role at the famous Bletchley Park military intelligence centre. A Northland woman who played a crucial wartime role in cracking German secrets has died at the age of 104. Lady Ellen Elizabeth Reed died at
Geoff Corfield Geoffrey Corfield has been active in Conservative politics in Canada since 1976, both federally and provincially. But he won’t always write about politics because he has more experience with writing history and humour. He lives in London, Ontario, frequents used book shops, swims lengths, drinks beer, plays
As ‘Maori Language Week’ comes to a close I thought it appropriate to bring you the reo for ‘gratitude’, but such a word does not exist in the tongue. Did you know that? To understand why we need to hear from the brilliant Mr William Colenso, a prolific publisher in
Rejected as unsuitable for publication by the University of Otago Press, but really liked by The BFD. Available on Amazon as an e-book or in paperback directly from the author in Canada. $25NZ (includes postage) Contact: corfieldwg@gmail.com
When science fiction authors William Gibson and Bruce Sterling made Victorian inventor Charles Babbage’s “Difference Engine” the centrepiece of their novel of the same name, it was a reminder that many “modern” inventions have long, long histories. Babbage and co-inventor Ada Lovelace’s Difference Engine, and its even more
“Ignorance is Strength”, ran the motto of the socialist Party in Orwell’s 1984. Decades of left-wing domination of the education system has produced a generation so astonishingly ignorant that their know-nothingness is practically a superpower. Students today are the Supermen of Ignorance. Their ignorance is so thoroughgoing that, despite
You can purchase Nieuw Zeeland An English-Speaking Polynesian Country With A Dutch Name: A Humorous History of New Zealand by Geoffrey Corfield from Amazon today. The Maori are fascinated, confused and amused by the missionaries that came to New Zealand. Each religion claimed to be the one true way to
Geoff Corfield Geoffrey Corfield has been active in Conservative politics in Canada since 1976, both federally and provincially. But he won’t always write about politics because he has more experience with writing history and humour. He lives in London, Ontario, frequents used book shops, swims lengths, drinks beer, plays
If you were to believe the lying narrative of ignorant BLM goons, slavery was only ever perpetrated by white people, against black. This is a lie, of course. In fact, white people have every reason to be proud of their ancestors and the fight they lead to stamp out the
Rejected as unsuitable for publication by the University of Otago Press, but really liked by The BFD. Available on Amazon as an e-book or in paperback directly from the author in Canada. $25NZ (includes postage) Contact: corfieldwg@gmail.com
You can purchase Nieuw Zeeland An English-Speaking Polynesian Country With A Dutch Name: A Humorous History of New Zealand by Geoffrey Corfield from Amazon today. It certainly does seem at times in New Zealand history, that the North Island and the South Island really have very little in common other
Geoff Corfield Geoffrey Corfield has been active in Conservative politics in Canada since 1976, both federally and provincially. But he won’t always write about politics because he has more experience with writing history and humour. He lives in London, Ontario, frequents used book shops, swims lengths, drinks beer, plays
I was recently struck by a young graduate who told me that in all her years at school and at university, where she gained a Master’s degree, no less, she had never been introduced to the subject known to slightly older folk as History. Her revelation was in response
Queen Elizabeth II started it, when she dubbed 1992 her “annus horribilis”, and it’s reached its popular zenith in 2020: the modern tendency to declare the “worst. Year. Ever.” But the Wuhan plague, or more recent calamities from fire and flood to the Global Financial Crisis can’t hold
One of the more remarkable facts about the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) is just how little we actually know about them. Already extinct on the Australian mainland, the species vanished in little over a century after the arrival of Europeans in Tasmania. Although hunting was previously blamed for its extinction, it
