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: Social History
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 »
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 »
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 »