Elizabeth was born on September 7th 1533. This Royal Diary covers the year 1544 when she was 11. Elizabeth’s father King Henry VIII has just married his sixth wife - Elizabeth’s fourth step-mother! Elizabeth’s mother was Anne Boleyn. Anne married Henry in 1533 and three years later he had  her head cut off! (He married his third [...]

Cleopatra by Adele Geras is a very interesting book! It’s written in diary style by a young girl called Nefret who went to work for Queen Cleopatra when she was 10 years old. Nefret’s diary tells of the events that happened between the years we call 41-40BCE. It’s quite gripping and I’ve learnt heaps!
 
History is very fascinating! Have [...]

I’ve just finished reading a really cool book based on the true facts of the exile of Napoleon Bonaparte, a former and famous Emperor of France. Betsy and the Emperor by Staton Rabin is very well written and very interesting! It made me want to go and read the real story that Betsy has written herself. Betsy was about 13 [...]

Sir Edmund Hillary died on the 11th of January at the age of 88. Together with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay he was the first person to reach the summit of Mt Everest in May 1953, the world’s highest mountain, but he wasn’t just a mountaineer and adventurer. Sir Edmund will perhaps be best remembered for his [...]

Did you go and see the fireworks display on the waterfront?  It was pretty spectacular, and lots of fun, but do you know why we even celebrate the 5th of November with fireworks and bonfires?
It’s a British tradition, dating back to 1605.  A man called Guy Fawkes and his friends didn’t like the English king, [...]

In Shakespeare’s time theatre was their main entertainment, like films and television today. Plays were performed by theatre companies. A company would be supported by a rich patron. Shakespeare’s company was called the Chamberlain’s Men after their patron Lord Chamberlain. In 1603 their patron became James I, the King of England. After that they were [...]

William Shakespeare was a famous playwright and poet who lived in
England in the late 1500’s and early 1600’s. If he was alive today he would be over 400 years old! In his lifetime he wrote at least 38 plays. Many of his plays are famous, like Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth. Shakespeare also wrote [...]