The Pope Who Loved Me: Sixtus V and Elizabeth October 7, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
Sixtus V (the last of his name) was a grumpy counter-reformation pope who got mixed up with Philip II’s planned invasion of England: the invincible Armada. However, Sixtus, who hated Philip and saw the Spanish Empire as the greatest obstacle to the extension of his own power, made some strange conditions for lending money to […]
Crazy Couplings: Koestler and de Beauvoir October 9, 2015
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary
Here is part of an occasional series on crazy couplings: sexual encounters between individuals who, by rights, should never have had anything to do with each other, let alone undress in one another’s presence. To kick start the series two rather unpleasant people whose intimacy is thankfully beyond this blogger’s imagining: Simone de Beauvoir and […]
