News about Siegfried Sassoon

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Westminster Abbey giants have decided to return a sacred tabot (a symbolic tablet) to the Ethiopian church, which was looted by British troops in 1868. The HRH's vast Royal Collection of art, jewelry, furniture, decorative arts, and costume is the world's biggest private collection of treasures, and it includes several dubiously acquired treasures. Queen Victoria even arranged a special exhibition to commemorate items confiscated from monarchs that had been overthrown by her troops.

Prince George's teenage years are coming, and royal circles are divided on where the future king will go for his secondary education. Possibly the most obvious choice is his father's alma mater Eton, which is of course just a short drive from their couple's Adelaide Cottage home in Windsor Castle's grounds. However, Princess of Wales Theresa May is reported to have been 'heartbroken' over Prince George's decision to send Prince George to single-sex Eton College when he reaches his 13th birthday, according to a royal insider. So could Malborough College be on the cards? Kate is said to have adored her time in the United States, which culminated in her becoming the hockey captain (bottom and right). Left: In her Malborough days, she was captured on her birthday. Top: The Wales family head to Lambrook school in Bracknell where George, Charlotte and Louis currently attend

No Christmas is complete without a ghost story to tell - and who better to regale the assembled royals at Sandringham with their very own spooky tale of things that go bump in the night than the Prince and Princess of Wales ? Anmer Hall, just a few miles from the big house where Charles will be hosting his second Christmas as King, has its own resident ghost. Henry Walpole's spirit is said to stalk the redbrick mansion. He appeared in Anmer's grounds in the 16th century, but it was to Anmer that he returned when fleeing the Crown's agents.

Siegfried Sassoon's bitter 1919 poem Aftermath laments the sacrifice of his fallen comrades on the Western Front and calls on those who fought for ever to recall the debt they owe. It comes as a line: 'Look up, and promise by the green of spring that you'll never forget.' Thousands of people will attend local memorial services all around the country this weekend to keep up the pledge. Old soldiers who have been decorated will be able to stand with children. Scout troops will parade their banners. When the bugler appears in the Last Post, head will bow. Vicars will read from John 15: "Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his fellows." It is not, as the cynical Left would have you believe, a commemoration of imperialism or imperial rule, but a grateful tribute to those who struggled and died to keep this country free. Compare this display of quiet patriotism with the antics of ranting, mask-wearing, pro-Palestinian mobs who glorify the murder of Jewish civilians and call for Jihad against Israel and its citizens. The comparison could not be any clearer.

Terence Davies, the English filmmaker who produced several classic autobiographical films and literary adaptations, including The House Of Mirth and The Neon Bible, died at the age of 77. Davies' official Instagram account announced the news on Saturday, noting that he died 'completely at home' earlier this day after a'short illness.' With the autobiographical films Distant Voices (1988), Still Lives (1989) and The Long Day Closes (1992), the producer and screenwriter, who was born in Liverpool in 1945, began his career and quickly became known as one of Britain's best writers.

MATTHEW BOND: Call me superficial, but I do love the sort of historical film in which even the incidental characters make it to be well-known. You know, the type of film where someone might casually say: 'Ah, Lord Byron, have you met Shelley and his wife, Mary?' The Laureate has the same appearance as the others. Robert Graves, the acclaimed First Word War poet who would go on to write I, Claudius, is at the center of the story. Here we see that he was close enough to his fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon to call him'sass,' although his inner circle included T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and poet T. S. Eliot, while poet T. S. Eliot.

DEN CONFIDENTIAL: Captain Ollie Plunket, the new equerry to Queen Camilla, attracted a lot of attention at the Princess of Wales' carol service at Westminster Abbey. Ollie, a kinsman of Thompson, has a healthy physique similar to Thompson's, but he's 28 years old, unlike Major Johnny Thompson. Plunket, a retired officer in the Rifles, embarked on a solo motorbike ride from Argentina to Alaska, covering 24,500 miles and raising more than $100,000 for wounded servicemen while still in his teens. Along the way, there were some memorable experiences.

The University of Warwick has issued a warning far from the Madding Crowd (inset), which depicts the brutal reality of Victorian rural life. Thomas Hardy's (19th Century work (right) explores Bathsheba Everdene's loves and marriages, as well as faithful shepherd Gabriel Oak (left), Carey Mulligan and Matthias Schoenaerts appear as the characters in the book's 2015 film version). Gabriel's two hundred pregnant ewes are chased by his dog and crash to their deaths off a cliff in one scene. He kills his inexperienced sheepdog and becomes penniless after this. Four of Bathsheba's sheep died after eating a field of clover in a separate chapter. The Warwick's English Department set the alarm off the novel in the midst of scenes in which students could be 'upset by' as the story depicts the 'cruelty of nature and the rural life'.