Illuminations - a most enlightening experience

If you've not yet seen Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings, written and presented by Dr Janina Ramirez, then you've missed a treat. Over three luxurious hours Dr Janina unlocks the secrets of illuminated manuscripts that were custom-made for kings and explores the medieval world they reveal.

And just like the marvellous manuscripts she studies, decoding the complex imagery hidden within every border decoration and illuminated letter, Dr Janina is a rare treasure herself. She is a born communicator, brimming with passion and enthusiasm for her subject. Her insightful ideas regarding what medieval manuscripts say about the people who commissioned them, as well as the times in which they were written, make this one of the most accessible and absorbing History programmes in years.

So don't delay, follow this link, and watch it today!

If you'd like to lock the series away in your own library of wonders, you'll be pleased to hear that the DVD is available now from the British Library online shop.

From the Children of the Middle Ages to the Private Lives of Medieval Kings

There have been some great history programmes on the BBC lately. First up there's Dr Stephen Baxter's Too Much, Too Young: Children of the Middle Ages.

And then there's Dr Janina Ramirez's Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings.

If you have any interest in medieval history, or British history in general, you should check them both out.

And starting next Wednesday at 9.30pm on BBC2 are The Crusades, this time with Dr Thomas Asbridge.

Six small Maths errors that caused HUGE disasters

If there are any children are reading this, there's one thing you need to know about Maths in the real world.

If you make one tiny mistake, people will die.

Don't believe me? Then check out these six examples of apparently completely forgivable design calculation errors that cost lives.

The A to Z of Christmas

The A to Z of Christmas is now well underway over at TheChrismologist.com. Don't forget to check it out every day (of the working week) for the next update.

In the meantime, if you've not checked it out already, here's what you've missed so far.

A is for Angels

B is for Baubles

C is for Cards, Cake and Candy Canes

D is for Dom and Danny Do Christmas and Doctor Who

E is for Elf

F is for Figgy Pudding

What's the story, Morning Glory?

Morning Glory got a mention on QI tonight. No, not that sort of morning glory! This particular case of morning glory...

I wrote about the Morning Glory in Match Wits with the Kids three years ago.

Did you know...?
Some clouds form due to interactions with particular geographical features. One of the strangest of these is the geographically-specific cloud Morning Glory (I kid you not!). It is a rolling, cylindrical cloud which appears unpredictably over the Gulf of Carpentaria in Northern Australia. Due to a powerful ‘ripple’ in the atmosphere, it is possible to ‘surf’ the cloud in an unpowered glider.

Oh, and it's as long as the UK!

The Educational Benefits of Role-Playing Games

'English kids 18 months behind China’s.' Apparently.

According to the latest educational scare-mongering piece in the Current Bun, English teenagers are 18 months behind Chinese pupils when it comes to reading, while our 15-year-olds also trail behind those in countries such as Korea, Finland and Japan.

I could sit here and debate this point for hours. But instead, I'll just say that if you're worried about your teenager's (or your own) abilities in English then you could do a lot worse than order a copy of Match Wits With the Kids today.

If you'd like to read the rest of the doom-mongering article in The Sun, click here.