Made for sharing…
…is just one of the many slogans attached to television adverts for Walkers crisps which starred Gary Lineker. The former England football captain turned tv pundit and National Treasure was usually… Read more »
Category: Social History
Stick it in your family album
All lined up in a wedding group, here we are for a photograph.We’re all dressed up in our morning suits all trying not to laugh.Since the early caveman in his… Read more »
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 »
The Green Fields of France
And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind?In some faithful heart is your memory enshrinedAnd though you died back in 1916To that loyal heart are you always 19Or… Read more »
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 »
The Sting!
What is the quintessential sound of a traditional English summer? The tinkling nuisance of ‘Greensleeves’ as an ice-cream van turns up in a suburban street? The incessant drumming of rain… 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 »