Known for: Swingometer

I observed in my last post that the Ilkley Literature Festival was in the grip of a clique. Such complaints must now be put behind me because it transpires that James' wife Lucy is connected in some way to the clique and she managed to blag two free tickets to Peter Snow's talk tonight on the War of 1812 and, more specifically, the burning of the White House. Even better, one of the tickets found its way to me.

And so, James and I attended a very entertaining talk along with a fair number of, mostly elderly, Ilkleyites (although less than for Richard III). Snow, who is 75, delivered what was in effect an hour long lecture without notes. His immense enthusiasm, well known to election night viewers in the UK, causes him to speak rather quickly. At times it was as if Stanley Unwin had been a professor of History instead of Basic Engly Twenty Fido.

After the talk we didn't queue for a signed copy of the book because we were obliged to discuss - at some length - a burning and t(r)opical issue that has been mentioned in these pages before: namely, is the day always twelve hours long at the equator. I can tell you, we got some pretty admiring looks from the others leaving the talk as they were impressed by the scientific rigour of our debate; or possibly it was the way we illustrated out theories with extravagant hand gestures. It would indeed be a great shame if we ever met someone who actually knew anything at all about this subject.