User:Jim Hardie

Myself
Hello. I am Jim from Kent in England. I hail from the Tonbridge area where I still have family but have lived most of my life in other places. For the last couple of years, I have worked in Leeds and now live between there and Harrogate. I am a keen cricket and football follower and delighted that my new home is not far from Headingley Stadium; but unfortunately some 200 miles from the Emirates Stadium and even further from the St Lawrence Ground!

I used Wikipedia often about four years ago until a major research project intervened and left me with no spare time. That is now finished with the results in print and I am in the unaccustomed role of having leisure time and looking for ways to make best use of it. I had forgotten my Wikipedia password and have made a few edits lately via IP addresses but, lo and behold, I then found an old note of the password and it still works, so here I am again.

My interests are principally historical and I hope to add to Wikipedia's coverage of Ancient Greece, the Wars of the Roses, the Industrial Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars and World War II; as well as military history in general. I have related sporting interests in the early histories of English cricket and English football, which to my mind are key aspects of English social history. Anything that concerns military, social, cultural and geopolitical history from the 1450s to the 1950s is likely to catch my attention. I am not very interested in the events of my own lifetime as I lived through them and often found them disturbing. It is in the past that I find solace, although I acknowledge the paradox that the people who lived then were themselves often profundly disturbed.

Current activities
I am very interested in the Wars of the Roses at present and wondering how I can best contribute. I have an excellent book by Alison Weir entitled Lancaster & York and thinking of trying to work information from that book across several articles. I may follow a similar approach with other general histories including one fine cricket history by Derek Birley. It seems to me that many incomplete articles would benefit from a thorough examination by reference to noted general histories so that the main points are all captured to provide a baseline on which to build the detail. It will be an interesting exercise and I am always open to constructive feedback.