From "the rose-red city 'half as old as Time'" (i.e.Glasgow)...

On the Barricades in the Battle for Art, Truth & Beauty!

Welcome to the main portal of Whistle-World. It takes its name from the silver light-infantry whistle used by Edinburgh's own Major Patrick Ferguson to train his Loyal American militia in the Carolinas. Pattie, as a self-described "great admirer...of the word fun", is one of Whistle-World's tutelary spirits. The site aims to combine history, cinema and literature with spoofs, satire, fanfic and fan-art. Yes, it gets a bit camp in places - but camp is fun!

There are several 'parallel universes' in Whistle-World, which you can enter by clicking the links in the menu on the left:

Knight-Life:
So I'm out of the closet at last: deep down, I am still what I have always been - a Mediæval Historian. Here be thoughts and fancies from the Middle Ages: true stories, fiction, film, music, and amusing scraps on the Arthurian mythos (post-Roman in origin, but brought to international attention in this period). Whistle-World believes passionately in amor de lonh, beyond anything the Castellan of Blaia ever dreamed, so look out for a remarkably dashing but tragic Piemontèis King of Jerusalem, ill-used by novelists and film-makers, and for his even more heroic and doomed young brother-in-law.

Lobster Creel:
The original Whistle-World universe, established in 1998 as a care-home for 'Lobsters' - 18C redcoats, primarily casualties of the American War 1775-83 - much neglected here at home in Scotland and the rest of the UK.

The Crimean War:
Louis Nolan's controversial and horrific death at Balaklava overshadows his contributions to writing about cavalry, and his interesting background, with Scots connections. I've also posted the journal of Fanny Duberly, a delightful and brave young woman who went on campaign with her husband in the Crimean War. Bob is her horse, by the way.

Cinema:
I love a good film, especially Powell & Pressburger technicolour masterpieces, swashbucklers, silent classics and historicals. I also love to rip apart bad films, especially historically. Eye-candy is supplied.

Ruritanian Resistance in Exile:
If anyone wants to join the Ruritanian Resistance, this is the right place! Enter the world of Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda, Rupert of Hentzau and The Heart of Princess Osra: novels, film versions, non-canonical works, and my own subversive musings on Ruritanian society and politics.

Fanfic & Art:
Lots of wacky stuff in different fandoms... Includes Whistle-World's resident Agony Aunt, the illustrious Mme la Marquise de Merteuil of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Socially disgraced after the death of the Vicomte de Valmont, and disfigured by smallpox, she has put her letter-writing skills to work in solving the problems of other literary and cinematic characters.

Colleagues in the US, Canada and other parts of the UK have supplied case-notes, pictures and reviews, and all contributors are duly acknowledged. I am not responsible for their opinions, and quite possibly not for my own, either. There is, nevertheless, some moral purpose lurking among the debris here: heroism, honour and 'grace under pressure', whether it's on an encircled 18C hill-top or before 20C firing squads in Granada or Berlin; on a litter jolting along the road to battle in 12C Outremer, or by candlelight in the 1890s, in the space between the ink-pen and the paper, creating grace and grotesquerie in defiance of death. It is in Art, and Truth, and Beauty; in the quality known in Spanish as Duende.

ON SALE NOW

PATRICK FERGUSON: "A Man of Some Genius" M M Gilchrist National Museums of Scotland, 2003 £7.99 ISBN 1 901663 74 4 Sold by the National Museums of Scotland & the Royal Armouries Orderable from good bookshops and on the net: NMS Bookshop Amazon.co.uk

Whenever you want to get back 'Home', click the little 'house' in the menu side-bar ("There's no place like home, there's no place like home..."(Ruby slippers - indeed, Red Shoes of any kind - are optional), and it will bring you back here!You'll find out in Lobster Creel what's special about this building...

And please check your sanity before leaving!

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