Bring out the Branston
In a pub I asked what kind of sandwiches they had. ‘Ham and cheese,’ the man said. ‘Oh, yes please,’ I said. ‘Yes please what?’ he said. ‘Yes please, ham… Read more »
Category: Nostalgia
Ploughperson’s Pleasure
In the spring of 2022 Dicky Harrison, the landlord of the Tors pub in Belstone, Devon hit upon the idea of renaming a classic pub favourite as a ‘ploughperson’s lunch’… Read more »
How the Robin became part of Christmas
The robin was voted Britain’s national bird in a 1960 poll, and that popularity hasn’t diminished over the years. Stephen Moss in his 2017 book The Robin – a Biography… Read more »
Crackers at Christmas
An American friend, now a long-term resident in London, remembers one of her first Christmases here when while walking past a brightly lit house on Christmas day she saw through… Read more »
Hello Children – Everywhere….
Those opening words and the heartily jolly tune Puffing Billy which preceded them are symbols of a Fifties childhood as evocative as Meccano, balaclava helmets and chilblains. Every Saturday morning… Read more »
Gordon Bennett – you couldn’t make this stuff up!
Back in my days at Manchester University at the end of the 1960s – long before mobile phones or instant messaging apps were available – you could ask at the… Read more »
The Lion and Albert
I’m not quite sure why – sometime in 1999 – I bought the large glove puppet from the Aldi store in DIdsbury, Manchester. I was over fifty and had two… Read more »
Ducks in a row
There’s probably nothing that sums up mid-twentieth century middle class suburbia more than three ceramic ducks flying to nowhere on the wall of a terraced or semi-detached house. They were… Read more »
The Picnic
Some picnics are more memorable than others. I would probably put our alfresco lunch on a Sunday in June 2016 in the top ten. Our Californian friends Kurt and Bev… Read more »
This is Illyria lady…
[Enter VIOLA, a Captain, and Sailors] Viola. What country, friends, is this?Captain. This is Illyria, lady. Tweflth Nigt Act I Scene II Well it wasn’t really Illyria but the stage… Read more »