The Eyam Plague
April 17, 2020
A hugely appropriate story from the Great Plague of 1665. … More The Eyam Plague
Category: History
A lesser-known Bionicle anniversary
December 5, 2019
As has been said many times elsewhere, and by me here, September this year marks 20 years since Bob Thompson and I started developing my reworking of Lego’s original three and a half pages of Boneheads of Voodoo Island into what would soon become Bionicle. But it was also 1999, and the Millennium Eve was … More A lesser-known Bionicle anniversary
Walking in the footsteps of giants Pt4
July 29, 2018
The final and most important leg of my Beatles tour. … More Walking in the footsteps of giants Pt4
Walking in the footsteps of giants Pt3
July 28, 2018
Part three of my first visit to the land of Beatles. … More Walking in the footsteps of giants Pt3
Walking in the footsteps of giants Pt2
July 28, 2018
Continuing the tour of some mostly lesser-known Beatles landmarks. … More Walking in the footsteps of giants Pt2
Walking in the footsteps of giants Pt1
July 27, 2018
Part 1 of an alternative tour of Beatles landmarks. … More Walking in the footsteps of giants Pt1
In search of the Great Breach Wood
December 8, 2017
High up above Dundon Fort, one of Somerset’s many hill forts, are a collection of glorious woods that surround a small gorge, known as the ‘The Great Breach’. The little village of Compton Dundon sits on the road that winds through the edges of the Somerset Levels from Yeovil to Glastonbury and beyond; at the … More In search of the Great Breach Wood
In search of Yeovil Country Park, Part 2
November 11, 2017
One of the shorter of the five Yeovil Country Park walks, but no less beautiful. … More In search of Yeovil Country Park, Part 2
In search of Yeovil Country Park, Part 1
August 29, 2017
The Riverside Walk. As I may have said before, Yeovil is not renowned as a place of beauty, but it does have some surprisingly beautiful places within it, if you know where to look. One of those is the Riverside Walk, part of Yeovil Country Park. If you want a larger version of this map, … More In search of Yeovil Country Park, Part 1
In search of… Max Tovey
May 11, 2016
A walk through Norton Covert at Ham Hill hill fort, Somerset, following the route taken in ‘The Multiverse of Max Tovey’. … More In search of… Max Tovey
In search of Sampson’s Wood
May 5, 2016
Another slice of beauty to be found within the municipality of Yeovil. … More In search of Sampson’s Wood
In search of Dodham Brook
May 4, 2016
An unexpectedly pleasant walk through Yeovil along a river I didn’t know existed. … More In search of Dodham Brook
We’ve caught a witch, may we burn him?
April 29, 2016
When being factually correct doesn’t really help anyone. … More We’ve caught a witch, may we burn him?
Joseph of Arimathea – an alternative grave?
April 28, 2016
Was Joseph of Arimathea not in fact buried at Glastonbury, but instead on St Michael’s Hill, Montacute? … More Joseph of Arimathea – an alternative grave?
Joseph of Arimathea – the alternative journey to Glastonbury
April 21, 2016
Most people with an interest in mythology know of the legend that Joseph of Arimathea came to Britain after the crucifixion and built the country’s first church at Glastonbury, but not so many know the alternative beginnings and ends to the story. No-one really knows how the legend started, and Joseph wasn’t mentioned in the … More Joseph of Arimathea – the alternative journey to Glastonbury
The real witch Of Hamdon Hill
March 17, 2016
The story of the witch that supposedly haunts Somerset’s Ham Hill is well known locally, but, as I have now discovered, everyone I’ve heard it from has got it completely wrong. But the real story is actually even more fascinating. Alastair Swinnerton is the author of ‘The Multiverse of Max Tovey’, a Young Adult novel set among the myths … More The real witch Of Hamdon Hill
The Somerset Tsunami
February 8, 2016
You may think there’s been a lot of flooding in the last few years, but nothing comes close to the devastating Somerset floods in January 1607. Back in 2014, you could look out from Ham Hill, Somerset, the largest hill fort in the country, and see the flooded Somerset Levels in all their ‘glory’, but thankfully that’s been … More The Somerset Tsunami
Getting back out there
February 3, 2016
It’s not been the best month. The death of anyone close to you is always a blow, but that of your oldest and best friend is more like being repeatedly hammered by Mohammed Ali. But life must eventually restart, and my book ‘The Multiverse of Max Tovey’ needs attention. The sequel needs starting of course, but before … More Getting back out there
Alastair Swinnerton 