King Edmund and the Danes d 869 (18)

1. Draw a picture of a Viking ship

2. Where is East Anglia?

East Anglia is the eastern part of England, today chiefly Suffolk and Norfolk and parts of Cambridgshire adn Essex

3. Why was Edmund a brave king?

Because he was willing to die rather than to renoounce his Christian faith.

Chapters with alternative titles

Intentionally or not there are discrepancies between the Chapter headings and the headings on the infographics in 25 of the 45 Chapters. Many of these are slight (The Egyptians/The People of Egypt) or offer descriptions (Saint Aidan/A Humble Christian). The biggest difference is perhaps 40. The Friend of the Climbing Boys/The Working Man's Friend

2. The Egyptians/The People of Egypt

3. Hammurabi/The people of Babylon

5. Phoenician Sailors/The Phoenicians

6. Athens and Sparta/Greeks and Persians

8. How Horatius held the bridge/Horatius

9. Hannibal crosses the Alps/A Great General

12. King Arthur and his knights/King Arthur

16. Saint Aidan/A Humble Christian

17. Caedmon the Cowherd/Our first poet

18. King Edmund and the Danes/King Edmund

19. King Alfred the Great/King Alfred

20. Two Great Sailors/Viking Sailors

22. Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury/

The King and the Archbishop

25. King John and the Great Charter/The Great Charter

27. Marco Polo/A Great Traveller

28. William Wallace/A Brave Scotsman

30. Queen Philippa and the Men of Calais/The Men of Calais

31. Cardinal Wolsey/The King and the Cardinal

32. Sir Walter Raleigh/A Sailor at Court

36. The Black Hole of Calcutta/Trouble in India

37. George Washington/A Great American

38. A Blind Roadmaker/John Metcalfe

39. The Battle of Trafalgar/A Great Sea Battle

40. The Friend of the Climbing Boys/The Working Man's Friend

Athens and Sparta/Greeks and Persians (6)

1. Tell how the Greeks defeated the Persians

The famous Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC. The battle was between the Greeks and the Persians. A Spartan runer (named Phaedippides) famously ran 135 miles to get help at one point but to no avail. The Spartans did not want to help the Athenians at this time. Somehow, despite being vastly outnumbered the AThenians were able to hold off the Persians and they retreated. The Athenian army seems to have failed at its centre at first but then the wings were able to force back the Persians leading to their rout and theur retreat to their ships.

2. How did the Spartans hold uop the Oersians in the mountains

The Persians then returned with an even larger army and this time the Athenians and Spartans co-operated. At one point the Spartans held the Persians in a mountain pass.A traitor showed the Persians another way to get through and so the Spartans ended up surrounded. They bravely fought on, however, until every one of their soldiers wsa dead. Although the Persians defeated the SPartan army they were unable to overcome the Athenian navy and again had to return hime defeated.

3. What is a 'maathon' race? How did it get it name?

A marathon is, of course, a long distance running race. The standard distance is 26.2 miles. Its name is from what happened at the battle mentioned above. Marathon is about 25 miles from Athens, hence the distance, although it is clear from Herodotus that the journey was much, much longer. It took two dys to run. When the modern Olympic Games were established in 1896, the legend inspired the creation of the marathon footrace to commemorate the historical run. The exact distance of the race varied in its early years but was officially standardised to the current distance during the 1908 London Olympics, so that the finish line could be placed directly in front of the Royal Family's viewing box at White City Stadium.

And One More

 

Yet More DoG Fun

 

Hannibal on an Elephant

Attributed to Nicolas Poussin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 

A Great General - Hannibal 247-c 181 BC Crosses the Alps (9)

1. From whch city did Hannibal come?

Hannibal was from Carthage in North Africa, an important trading hub, and a town already mentioned in the book in the chapter on the Phoenicians. Today it is in Tunisia.

2. Why did Hannibal use elephants?

Purton suggests that it was simply for the height they gave enabling Hannibal's soldiers to shoot down on the Romans. Other sources suggest that they were a powerful psychological weapon, their strangeness and their monstrous size and scent being likely to break enemy morale instantly. The elephants would be driven directly into enemy infantry lines to shatter their tight, organised formations, creating gaps for Hannibal's soldiers to exploit. Their sight, smell and terrifying sound would have caused Roman and allied horses to bolt, neutralising the Romans' mounted units. During Hannibal's infamous trek over the Alps in 218 BC the formidable appearance of the elephants helped deter raids from hostile local tribes.

3. Pretend you are Hannibal and tell of your adventures

Having consulted with my men, I decided that the best way to surprise the Romans and overpower them was to come at them from the north, over the alps, in order to catch them by surprise. It took months of preparation and a long time to get to the point of attack but it was a good strategy and when they first saw us, especially the elephants, they were clearly terrified. However, they are a powerful nation and after a while they readjusted and they were able in the end to defeat us.

The First Chief Scout Baden-Powell 1857-1941 (43)

Who was the first chief scout?

It was Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell 1857-1941. Clearly a man of his time, he has subsequeently been criticised by later generations for some of his ideas.

Find South Africa on your globe

Discott, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons (modified)

Tell what you know of the cubs, brownies, scouts and guides

I was never a boy scout, although my mother was always quite keen to get me into a scout troop. She did not mange it for some reason. My sister was in the brownies and then the guides and did some of the various badges. It is a large and strange phenonemon still going and getting into the news from time to time when it is considered controversial.

A Great Quaker Lady Elizabeth Fry 1780-1845 (40)

1. Which people did Elizabeth Fry want to help?

Purton decribes how Fry heard about Newgate prison and how badly women and children were treated there. She determined to try and help these rejected and forgotten people.

2. Why was the prisoner governor surprised?

Fry was a repsectable and demure woman but she wated to be amongst the dregs of society, women who had stolen and killed and who knows what else. Yet she wanted to be with them. (It is quite messianic and incarnational some extent).

3. What can you find out aboit the Quakers?

Quaker is a nickname given because one of their founders George Fox told a judge to quake before God. The Religious Society of Friends, originally known simply as the Society of Friends started as a restorationist denomination of Christians. They believe in each person's ability to be guided by the inward light to "make the witness of God" known to everyone. To differing extents, the Friends have avoided creeds and hierarchical strucures and so having begun as a broadly evangelical sect in the seventeenth century, by today all sorts of things are believed as the Bible has increasingly been left out of things.

Robin Hood (24)

1. What do you know about Robin Hood?

Robin Hood to us ehis pseudonym appears to have been a crusader who when he returned to England lost lands he once had because of the policies of bad King John who was in power at the time, Richard I being absent. The story is that Robin lived in Sherwood Forest with a band of other outlaws who made their living by hunting the King's deer and robbing the rich. Men like Friar Tuck, Little John and Will Scarlet became almost as famouos as Robin himself, not forgetting Maid Marion too, of course.

2. Some of the outlaws

Two more fun pages

 

The Beatles

Being less serious, you start thinking of other possibilities.

William Tyndale 1494-1536

It always seems tp me that William Tyndale does not feature in Days of Glory (or similar works). It seems most people are relatively ignorant of their greatest hero. Here are two mock ups I got AI to do for me.

Purton gets the DoG treatment

 

Imagined Interview with the late R W Purton

Interviewer: Mr Purton, looking back at the 1960s, what sparked your desire to write history books specifically for children?

Roland W. Purton: The post-war era brought a massive shift in education. Children were naturally curious, but standard textbooks were dry, dense, and frankly discouraging. I wanted to create books that acted as windows, not walls. My goal was to make history feel alive, visual, and deeply human.

Interviewer: Your book Days of Glory is highly remembered. What was the core message you wanted to convey to young readers?

Purton: Days of Glory focused on pivotal, heroic moments in history. I wanted children to understand that progress is driven by courage and determination. It was about capturing the imagination through narrative. If you make history a story of people rather than just a list of dates, children will remember it forever.

Interviewer: You wrote several other books in the 1960s with similar educational themes, like Man in Society and your contributions to the Star Books series. How did those fit into your vision?

Purton: Those books were all about connection. Man in Society was designed to help older children see their place in a rapidly changing world. The 1960s were turbulent and exciting. The Star Books series, on the other hand, focused on foundational topics - things like clothing, food, and transport through the ages. I wanted to show that everyday items have vast, fascinating histories.

Interviewer: The visual layout of your books was quite distinct for the time. How involved were you in the illustration process?

Purton: Very involved. In the sixties, printing technology was evolving, allowing for more vibrant, integrated illustrations. I collaborated closely with artists because a picture can explain a complex historical concept faster than three paragraphs of text. For a child, the visual anchor is everything.

Interviewer: How do you feel about the legacy of your 1960s books today?

Purton: I am always delighted when someone tells me my books sparked a lifelong love of history. We didn't have the internet or digital media back then. The book was the primary portal to the past. Knowing that those pages helped shape how a generation viewed the world is incredibly rewarding.

Interviewer: Mr Purton, a blog exists to perpetuate the memory of you and your book Days of Glory. What are your thoughts on your name and work being referenced in this modern way?

Purton: It is quite remarkable, really! When I was writing Days of Glory back in the 1960s, our version of sharing information was the school library or a physical pamphlet. The concept that anyone can spin up a digital ledger or a "blog" to archive history, share thoughts, or track obscure mid-century children's books is fascinating. If people are using these modern platforms to keep the memory of twentieth-century educational books alive, then it serves exactly the purpose I had in mind when I started writing. It democratises knowledge. It makes the past accessible to anyone with a screen, which is precisely what we were trying to do with our heavily illustrated text layouts decades ago.

The King and the Cardinal - Cardinal Wolsey 1473-1530 (31)

1. Where is Hampton Court? Who had it built?

Today Hampton Court is found in West London. It is 12 miles southwest and upstream of Central London. The palace there was famously built by Wolsey for himself. He only gave it to the king to avert his anger.

2. Why did some people not like Cardinal Wolsey?

He was unpopular with some becasue he seemed rather proud. Others were simply jealous ofthe way the butcher's son had got on in life and was rch and was in such favour with the king.

3. Why was Wolsey arrested?

The king was angry at being unable to secure the divorce from Katherine of Aragon that he desired. Because WOlsey appeared to side wiht the Pope against the king, Henry had him arrested.

Saint Columba (14)

1. Why did Columba leave Ireland?

Columba left, as Purton pits it, because he borrowed a book without asking if he could. In fact he copied it out for himself but without permissionto do so. There may well have been other issues that clustered around this one.

2. Look on a map of Scotland for Iona and Inverness

 

3. Pretend you are Columbus and tell the King of Scotland why you have come

We have come O King to tell you aboout a King greater than yourself, a King who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Just as men bow down to you so you must bow down to him for he is the Son of God. God sent him into this world long ago to live and die for all who trust in him. Turn then from the worship of idols and begin to worship the one true God who has sent his Son into the world. Trust in him.

Some Illustrations from the Book

 

The Battle of Britain 1940 (44)

1. Who was Hitler?

Purton tells us Hitler was German and wanted to rue over a lot of other countries in addition. He marched his armies into countries that were notstrong enough to resist. The reason the British went to war with him was to stop him taking over any more countries. Obviosuly that leaves out a whole lot but it is a good enough short summary, I guess.

2. What was the Battle of Britain?

The Battle of Britain (Luftschlacht um England, 'air battle for England') was a WWII military campaign in which the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm of the Navy defended the UK against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force (the Luftwaffe). It was the first major military campaign fought entirely by air forces. It takes its name from the speech given by Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the House of Commons on 18 June, 1940: "What General Weygand called the 'Battle of France' is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin."

The Germans had rapidly overwhelmed France and the Low Countries in the Battle of France, leaving Britain to face the threat of invasion by sea. The German high command recognised the difficulties of a seaborne attack while the Royal Navy controlled the English Channel and the North Sea. The primary objective of the German forces was to compel Britain to agree to a negotiated peace settlement.

The British officially recognise the battle's duration as being from 10 July-31 October 1940, which overlaps the period of large-scale night attacks known as the Blitz, that lasted 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941. German historians do not follow this subdivision and regard the battle as a single campaign lasting from July 1940 to May 1941, including the Blitz.

In July 1940, the air and sea blockade began, with the Luftwaffe mainly targeting coastal-shipping convoys, as well as ports and shipping centres such as Portsmouth. On 16 July, Hitler ordered the preparation of Operation Sea Lion as a potential amphibious and airborne assault on Britain, to follow once the Luftwaffe had air superiority over the Channel. On 1 August, the Luftwaffe was directed to achieve air superiority over the RAF, with the aim of incapacitating RAF Fighter Command; 12 days later, it shifted the attacks to RAF airfields and infrastructure. As the battle progressed, the Luftwaffe also targeted factories involved in aircraft production and strategic infrastructure. Eventually, it employed terror bombing on areas of political significance and on civilians. In September, RAF Bomber Command night raids disrupted the German preparation of converted barges, and the Luftwaffe's failure to overwhelm the RAF forced Hitler to postpone and eventually cancel Operation Sea Lion. The Luftwaffe proved unable to sustain daylight raids, but their continued night-bombing operations on Britain became known as the Blitz.

Germanys air opower was far suoerior but their failure to destroy Britain's air defences and force it out of the conflict was the first major German defeat in the Second World War.

3. One of the British aeroplanes of that time

Rodin's Burghers of Calais

Auguste Rodin, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons