THE BREEZER Newsletter

Worst of all for the Chinese, the British continued to trade in opium. This was the beginning of their ‘century of humiliation’. Of course, China had the last laugh. The Breezer - A weekly newsletter from Steve Winduss at the Batting the Breeze podcast. Spend a few minutes with me exploring historical snippets and fascinating facts related to the forthcoming week. 18th January 2026. Happy Sunday Reader!Having watched rather too much David Attenborough over the festive break and convincing...

If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son! The Breezer - A weekly newsletter from Steve Winduss at the Batting the Breeze podcast. Spend a few minutes with me exploring historical snippets and fascinating facts related to the forthcoming week. 21st December 2025. Happy Sunday Reader! If you were to imagine the life of one of literature’s most celebrated poets, you...

The identity of the woman in the painting has never surfaced. She’s wearing an exotic turban—pearl grey and golden yellow—with a jacket to match. Enigmatic. Intimate. That's the girl with a pearl earring. The Breezer - A weekly newsletter from Steve Winduss at the Batting the Breeze podcast. Spend a few minutes with me exploring historical snippets and fascinating facts related to the forthcoming week. 14th December 2025. Happy Sunday Reader!For years I moved through the family home...

"I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen." The Breezer - A weekly newsletter from Steve Winduss at the Batting the Breeze podcast. Spend a few minutes with me exploring historical snippets and fascinating facts related to the forthcoming week. 7th December 2025. Happy Sunday Reader!You’ll have to excuse me, I have taken an impromptu trip to Belgium and Germany, hence the...

He wrote endless letters, attended her every performance and behaved in the audience with the subtlety of a man who'd just caught fire. In England, we would call this stalking. The French called it love. The Breezer - A weekly newsletter from Steve Winduss at the Batting the Breeze podcast. Spend a few minutes with me exploring historical snippets and fascinating facts related to the forthcoming week. 30th November 2025. Happy Sunday Reader!One of my most cherished memories as a teenager was...

By the time Batu Khan had demolished Kyiv, he had redrawn the political map of Europe. The city would slide from major commercial and cultural centre to provincial backwater. The Breezer - A weekly newsletter from Steve Winduss at the Batting the Breeze podcast. Spend a few minutes with me exploring historical snippets and fascinating facts related to the forthcoming week. 23rd November 2025. Happy Sunday Reader!Now in the fourth year of conflict, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the people...

It was a brutal baptism. With temperatures falling below minus 30 degrees Celsius, equipment froze solid. Changing photographic plates became an exercise in pain management. The Breezer - A weekly newsletter from Steve Winduss at the Batting the Breeze podcast. Spend a few minutes with me exploring historical snippets and fascinating facts related to the forthcoming week. 16th November 2025. Happy Sunday Reader!If you take a trip to the National Portrait Gallery in London, you’ll find 'Room...

Or to put it another way, an unelected appointee of the British Empire had just overturned the will of millions of Australian voters. Ouch. But hold on—the story doesn’t end there. The Breezer - A weekly newsletter from Steve Winduss at the Batting the Breeze podcast. Spend a few minutes with me exploring historical snippets and fascinating facts related to the forthcoming week. 9th November 2025. Happy Sunday!If my maths is correct, the 2025 United States federal government shutdown has now...

The Pandora headed north along the east coast of Australia. But as the frigate rounded Cape York from the Great Barrier Reef and entered the Torres Strait on 29 August 1791, disaster struck. The Breezer - A weekly newsletter from Steve Winduss at the Batting the Breeze podcast. Spend a few minutes with me exploring historical snippets and fascinating facts related to the forthcoming week. 2nd November 2025. Happy Sunday!A couple of days ago the British press erupted with news that sent...