Sebastian Faulk's classic novel of World War One life, Birdsong, has been filmed. I don't know too much about what happens in the book as I'd like to read it, but I did find an article in the Guardian interesting. It explains how a set of tunnels were dug for filming, how the actors were taken to real WW1 tunnels to give them the right feeling, and a bit about the reason tunnels were dug during the war and the conditions faced. But to read the book or watch the film first? Tricky...

One of the items in the British Museum is a rare Roman helmet. Rare, because it's silver-gilt plating survives, making it unique in Britain and a scarce early example from across the Roman Empire. But when it was found and excavated ten years ago it was in thousands of pieces, and has only now been pieced back together after an extremely difficult and tricky restoration job. The Guardian has a picture, and it's still clearly suffered, but you can see what it is. Of course, putting the helmet together might be the easy part; next archaeologists have to agree on why such a 'high status' item appears to have been buried in Britain, possibly in the same year as the Roman invasion. Was it given as a reward to a pliant local commander? Was it sold by someone in the Empire to a British native? No one really knows.

Until 2009, Cromer Town FC, a small British football / soccer club, thought they had been given a piece of land to play on by a rich local woman, in recognition of the part played by local men in World War 1. Unfortunately, in 2009 it was discovered that this was actually a loan, and that there was a key condition to using the land: the club could hold it until twenty one years after the death of the last grandchild of King Edward VII who was living at the time of the grant. This grandchild was swiftly identified as King Olav V of Norway, who died twenty one years ago, meaning the deadline has now passed.

A tussle between the local council, who want to redevelop the ground, and the club, who want to stay, began, before a Cromer FC supporter came up with an interesting point: the grant specified that it included all grandchildren "in being", and there was one who certainly alive but not yet born. If this foetus is included, the club have another twenty years at the ground in which to sort this out. A legal battle is imminent. The Telegraph has more information and quotes.

For this month's articles, we've gone back to Western Europe in the central middle ages. We look at the 'Angevin Empire' and two of its rulers: brothers, and Kings of England, Richard I and John. The former was famed for centuries for his martial prowess and bravery, and the latter for his failure, but the situation has changed in recent decades. We also look at one product of John's reign that still resonates: Magna Carta, or 'The Great Charter, and the brothers' mother Eleanor of Aquitaine, arguably the most powerful women in Europe during her considerable lifetime. I also wanted to flag up a biography of a far more recent English leader, Margaret Thatcher, as a film of her career has been released. We also take a brief look at Scutage, Misericordes and Free Companies.