Starting point

What

Back in 2016, I decided to create a web site dedicated to explaining the Wars of the Roses fully and in a way that makes the subject fun to explore and easy to understand.  The site would include a blog page so that I could share, and receive comments on, the site building process.

How

I discovered that there were many ways to navigate through the complexities of the war: through family trees, geography and timelines.  My idea was to create a graphically rich, interactive way for the reader to do this so that bird’s and worm’s eye views can be married together and cross-referencing becomes easier.  For instance, why did this or that earl change sides and what effect did that have on which battle, when and with what consequence on the succession to the crown.

The journey

My efforts petered out within a year of making the decision. This was largely because I had decided to include three-dimensional images on the site: weapons, people, even battlefields. I had no experience of this and so embarked on a programme of learning about 3D in general and, after dabbling with a number of options, Blender 3D in particular. I have now reached a stage of some slight competence; enough to be able to restart the website project in the knowledge that I should be able to add 3D images when the time comes.

On my next blog, I will attempt to describe the challenges that I still face. Suffice it to say that it will take a long time to complete the site – far longer than the time I want to publish. I have therefore created just enough of the site to, hopefully, tempt. I will then carry on building; hopefully with guidance and comments from readers.

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