In Competition No. 2774 you were invited to supply an extract from the diary of a well-known historical figure that startlingly reverses received ideas about history and the person in question.
John Samson outs Oliver Cromwell as a closet Cavalier in love with all things Irish, while Steve Baldock’s extract from the diary of Jackson Pollock reveals the origins of the great Abstract Expressionist’s drip paintings to be in a ‘drunken paint fight’. Sandra Hardingham lifts the lid on a darker side of Florence Nightingale. It was an entertaining entry: commendations all round. The winners earn £25. The bonus fiver goes to Alan Millard.
The second day of September in the year of our Lord, sixteen hundred and sixty six: Wearied by my wife, fled frantic to Fleet Street and thence to the Fountain inn where, after much musique and wine, was minded to wander eastward and there, sore addled, did stumble on tinder box wherein were pockets containing flint, steel, char cloth and shavings of wood.
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