Piers Mucklejohn

London

Journalist at Freelance

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Articles

What goes on inside London’s mysterious green huts only select few can enter

3 weeks ago | mylondon.news | Veronique Hawksworth |Matt Spivey |Piers Mucklejohn

London is well-known for its iconic red pillarboxes - but you may have also spotted a green hut in some parts of central London and wondered what it was for. Many Londoners may not realise that these green huts have offered London's cab drivers a respite and a quick bite since Victorian times. The huts are officially protected buildings after the last remaining shelter in St John's Wood joined the list in April 2024.
Why the Pickaxe Murder of a Wealthy Miller Sparked a Media Frenzy in 1614

Jan 4, 2025 | earlymodernscribbling.com | Piers Mucklejohn

Late in the evening of 21 April 1614, Edward Hall was murdered. The weapon of choice was a pickaxe, the method multiple blows to the sleeping man’s head, and the perpetrators three servants in his employ. The crime lay undiscovered for a week, until two of the culprits confessed their involvement to a local Justice of the Peace and were imprisoned, awaiting an undoubtedly swift trial for which the punishment would be no less than death.
Shop Signs in Early Modern England Were Much More Interesting Than You’d Think

Dec 9, 2024 | earlymodernscribbling.com | Piers Mucklejohn

Dragons, lions, and bears were a familiar sight on the streets of Tudor and Stuart England. That these beasts were formed of paint (not flesh) and were imprisoned within the confines of wooden signboards probably extinguishes much of the interest this fact may have piqued in a reader — but the signs which adorned taverns, alehouses, and tradesmen’s shops were very important indeed. Not all signs were so intriguingly illustrated, many bearing a simple star, bell, or deer.
Why the Ghosts of Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey Haunted England’s Civil War

Oct 24, 2024 | earlymodernscribbling.com | Piers Mucklejohn

The English Civil War is famous as a time of bloody battling between Royalists and Parliamentarians during which the country underwent significant political and religious upheaval, accompanied by ideas about the role of monarchy and order of society which could be so radical that some historians speak of an “English Revolution” between 1639 and 1651. As if life during this tumultuous period wasn’t interesting enough, ghosts allegedly roamed the streets at night.
Anthony Nixon: 17th Century Writer, Journalist, and Plagiarist

Oct 15, 2024 | earlymodernscribbling.com | Piers Mucklejohn

There emerged, some time around the final two decades of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign, a new type of author in England — the professional.
Handguns in Early Modern England: Crime, Class, and Social Order

Oct 15, 2024 | earlymodernscribbling.com | Piers Mucklejohn

In his deeply critical review of Channel 5’s Anne Boleyn (2021), the Daily Mail‘s Christopher Stevens took issue with a variety of things—among them, was the historical accuracy of the show regarding firearms. In one scene, Anne Boleyn (played by Jodie Turner-Smith) is so bothered by peacocks’ squawking that she requests them to be shot. Stevens was not having any of it: ‘With what — cannon?’, he rhetorically asks.
Early Modern Domestic Abuse in a 17th Century Ballad and its Woodcut

Oct 15, 2024 | earlymodernscribbling.com | Piers Mucklejohn

The woodcut above, a crude depiction of a family from the 1630s, looks wholesome enough at first glance. We see a family gathered around the table, probably about to eat. There appears to be food of some sort on offer, perhaps cheese. The two adults are engaging in conversation. The father happily puffs away at his pipe; the mother tends to the couple’s three young children.
Joseph Swetnam and (Early) Modern Misogyny

Oct 15, 2024 | earlymodernscribbling.com | Piers Mucklejohn

There appeared in 1615 a pamphlet which, though but one among a tumultuous sea of provocative works, proved particularly controversial. Its title pulled no punches—The Araignment of Lewde, idle, froward, and unconstant women—and its author went by the pseudonym ‘Thomas Tel-troth’, a generic guise for writers who affirmed the truth of their message but were wary of its consequences. The author was, in fact, a man named Joseph Swetnam.
Widecombe-in-the-Moor’s 1638 Thunderstorm: A Case Study in 17th-Century News Reporting

Oct 15, 2024 | earlymodernscribbling.com | Piers Mucklejohn

This post concerns three news pamphlets published by Ralph Harford in November 1638. Each concerns the same event: a ‘most Lamentable Accident’ which occurred at the Church of Saint Pancras in Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Devon, the month prior. The pamphlets, two of which are nearly identical and one of which constitutes an updated version of the two antecedent reports tell of a terrible thunderstorm afflicting a congregation gathered for afternoon Sunday Mass.
The Duke of Buckingham’s 1627 Siege of Saint-Martin-de-Ré: A Stuart PR Nightmare

Oct 15, 2024 | earlymodernscribbling.com | Piers Mucklejohn

On 29 October 1627, thousands of English soldiers scrambled in a disorganised, deadly retreat from the citadel at Saint-Martin-de-Ré, just off the west coast of France. It was the humiliating culmination of a siege which had lasted three months. The army’s commander was George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Lord High Admiral of England.