Holy Land

• My research into 18th century preservation practices led me to a favourite book that details these heart histories of the famous and infamous: historian Charles Bradford’s quirky tome, Heart Burial (1933).
• Amazingly sweeping and entertaining, the book narrates the heart journeys of many – primarily western – military, religious and political figures.
• One such figure, the diplomat Sir William Temple (1628-1699), is buried next to his wife in Westminster Abbey.

• The practice of preserving the heart – the ancient symbol of the soul and emotion – was not uncommon.
• But for people in the 18th century, as this case and others show, it also symbolised lovers being united in death.

Literary hearts

• Perhaps the most storied literary heart is that of poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822).
• Italian law required the cremation of a drowning victim’s body, so Shelley’s corpse was laid upon a funeral pyre on the shores of the sea, with literary luminaries such as Lord Byron and Leigh Hunt in attendance.

• The Shelleys’ son, Sir Percy Florence, had his father’s heart encased in silver and placed on display at Boscombe Manor.
• Upon his death in 1889, the heart was laid to rest in the family vault at St Peter’s Church, Bournemouth.

Hungry hearts

• In May 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte’s corpse was autopsied over two days before it was to be transported from St Helena to France.
• Napoleon had requested his intestines be preserved and given to his son, and his heart be sent to his wife Empress Marie-Louise.
• When rumours circulated in January 1928 regarding the heart of renowned English novelist Thomas Hardy, many were in disbelief.

• Placing the dead cat with the remainder of the heart in a box, he left the Hardy residence, surrounded by mourners, and proceeded to St Michael’s where the contents were buried.
• Though Napoleon’s and Hardy’s storied hearts also serve as reminders, perhaps, that we shouldn’t take romantic traditions too seriously.

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Jolene Zigarovich does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Road Town, British Virgin Islands--(Newsfile Corp. - February 5, 2024) - In a significant move for cryptocurrency and mobile technology enthusiasts, LBank Exchange, a premier global digital asset trading platform, has announced the listing of Dynasty Wars (DWARS) on February 5, 2024.
• Users of LBank Exchange can brace themselves for the DWARS/USDT trading pair, which will go live at 15:00 UTC on the slated date.
• Through engaging gameplay and immersive storytelling, Dynasty Wars invites players into a world where ancient lore and digital assets converge.
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• I can’t think of any colony or mandate that was as demanding intellectually and emotionally as Palestine.
• I said: “I found the British still very emotional about Palestine.
• Why?” And he said: “It’s associated, don’t you think with partisanship with one side or the other.
• I can’t think of any colony or mandate that was as demanding intellectually and emotionally as Palestine.
• Mayhew, a staunch anti-communist, found himself out of sync with the zeitgeist and abandoned Labour for the Liberal Party.

Internal rivalries

• There has thus been a powerful tendency for the antagonisms of the Arab-Israeli conflict to map onto Labour’s own internal rivalries and the factional battle for control over the party.
• Between 1945 and 1967, this usually manifested itself as a clash between a pro-Zionist left and an anti-Zionist right.

Starmer’s predicament

• Keir Starmer’s political positioning on the 2023 Gaza conflict is shaped by his experience of the more recent chapters of that history.
• He has sought to rebuild trust with the British Jewish community and distance the party from what many see as the toxic image it acquired under Corbyn.
• These are all pressures and dangers that can be expected to grow as the Gaza conflict intensifies and its human costs mount.

James Vaughan is affiliated with the Jewish Labour Movement

• New in 2025, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, returns as a homeport for Holland America Line, hosting Rotterdam and Nieuw Statendam on roundtrip voyages to Northern Europe and the Baltic.
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