Brett Holman
It’s the last day of AHA 2026, though the only things on the program for today are historical tours and as I decided (for reasons) to attend online this time, that means the conference is over for me. Though it felt rushed and a bit garbled, I think my talk on London’s air raid shelters in 1917-18...
Brett Holman
A few years ago I took part in a very enjoyable Tales from Rat City podcast episode, hosted by David Waldron and centred around the 1918 Australian mystery aeroplane panic from the perspective of Ballarat in the Victorian goldfields region. That had actors reading out primary source quotations,...
Brett Holman
I’m not obsessed with ‘England is no longer an island‘, you are! OK, so maybe I am, a little, but mainly because ‘England is no longer an island’ (EINLAI) is one of those phrases that nearly every historian writing about early aviation in Britain cannot fail to quote, usually attributed to Lord...
Brett Holman
My abstract for the Australian Historical Association’s 2026 conference, being held at Macquarie University from 29 June–3 July, has been accepted. My talk is entitled ‘The Underworld: Living and Dying in London’s Air Raid Shelters, 1917-1918’ and this is the abstract: London’s first...
Brett Holman
Content warning: descriptions of death and mutilation. The opening paragraph of the current draft of my next book, about one day over a century ago: Shortly before midday on 13 June 1917, Upper North Street School in Poplar was hit by a single bomb dropped from a German aeroplane. It...
Brett Holman
Registrations are now open for Print the Legend, the next Aviation Cultures Spotlight event, which will be held online across 27 and 28 February 2026 (Australian Eastern Daylight Time; correct for your own timezone). This is a free event, but you do need to register beforehand. Print the Legend...
Brett Holman
This appeared in the correspondence section1 of Fortean Times 464 (December 2025), relating a story told by the grandmother of the author, Robert Flood: During the First World War her husband was serving in the Royal Naval Air Service and Nan was living with her parents in Temple Mill Lane,...
Brett Holman
Like many people – out of the sort of people who know these sorts of things, that is – I knew of Jan Smuts’ key role in the origins of both the RAF and the Air Ministry. It was the so-called ‘Smuts report‘ to the War Cabinet, in August 1917, which set the whole process rolling and, after some...
Brett Holman
Somehow I managed to miss – by exactly a year! – the publication of the third and final volume of Ian Castle’s history of the Zeppelin and Gotha raids: Ian Castle, Zeppelin Onslaught: The Forgotten Blitz 1914–1915 (Barnsley: Frontline, 2018). Ian Castle, Zeppelin Inferno: The Forgotten...
David Stark
A quick pixel piece from this photo reference.
David Stark
Currently sick. More non-voxel things appearing soon.
David Stark
There's now a voxel art tag, given that it's likely you'll see more of these yet.
David Stark
I've started learning MagicaVoxel, a really cool voxel editor and renderer. I decided it would be nice to do a 3D voxel representation of You wake up every morning and see the footsteps.
David Stark
David Stark
David Stark
Our two cats, Sinister and Dexter, enjoying the view. Sinister Dexter
David Stark
The turtledove, like many other creatures in Suspendium-rich regions, has learned the trick of bio-accumulating Suspendium to become flighted. In the turtledove’s case, the accumulation is confined to the shell, which as a rigid mass of bone acts as an excellent and safe matrix for the Suspendium....
David Stark