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One of the most popular Christmas carols, Silent Night, was performed for the first time 200 years ago this month, on 24th December 1818, at midnight mass at a parish church in Oberndorf, near Salzburg, Austria. The carol was originally a poem, written in six verses by priest Joseph Mohr two years earlier. Because the...

200 years ago this Christmas Eve a parish priest near Salzburg in Austria and his organist wrote a new carol for the midnight mass. The priest, Fr Joseph Mohr, provided the words in a poem he had recently written. The organist was Franz Xavier Gruber who created a tune of haunting beauty. The carol, Stille...

Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol was first published 175 years ago, on 19th December 1843, at a time when the author was hard-pressed financially but appeared inspired by his themes of redemption and poverty. The first edition sold out by Christmas Eve, and by the end of the next year 13 editions had been...

We think of the traditional British Christmas as a few days off work, a family get-together and a big meal. In fact, that only goes back to Victorian times. Before that it was a religious event, with church services and carols, but not a great community event. Among important influences on the change was a...

Beatrix Potter, the children’s writer and illustrator, died of pneumonia in Cumbria 75 years ago, on 22nd December 1943. Born in 1866 in Kensington to a well-off family, she had limited higher education but schooled herself to the extent that she could be described as a natural scientist, particularly in the study of fungi. She...

Do you listen to podcasts?  Then you are right ‘on trend’, because nearly six million adults in Britain are now listening to the audio format each week, according to Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator.  That is nearly double the number recorded five years ago. What’s most popular?  That Peter Crouch Podcast, produced by the BBC, where...

If you are looking to splash around a vast amount of money this Christmas, why not contact The Royal Mint?  It has just launched Britain’s most expensive ever Christmas crackers – which include a solid gold bar and gold diamond necklace. A pack of six of the crackers will set you back £5000, but at...

Our high streets are filling up with takeaways.  Fast-food outlets have risen by a third in less than a decade, at the same time as hundreds of shops are closing every year. So says the Office for National Statistics. The figures reveal that high streets now have the highest concentration of fast-food outlets since 2010. ...

All in the month of November Diary of Momentous Year – November 1918 – When the Boys Came Home Wilfred Owen – 1st World War Poet and Hero Remembering Enid Blyton Kristallnacht – night of terror Every One Remembered Don’t forget their loneliness ‘Ask Your Pharmacist’ Week 2018   5th – 12th November The menace of...

It was: 300 years ago, on 3rd Nov 1718 that John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, was born.  He may have been Postmaster General and First Lord of the Admiralty, but we remember him today as the inventor of the sandwich, which he ordered from his chef to sustain him at the gambling table....

By Autumn 1918 it was obvious that the war was coming to an end, Germany was clearly beaten, but no one had actually won. The front line was more or less as it had been for years, but after Amiens the Germans knew that this was a conflict they could never win. High level discussions...

British poet and soldier Wilfred Owen was killed 100 years ago this month, on 4th Nov 1918.  He died leading his troops across a canal in Northern France exactly a week before the war ended. He was 25. Owen, who was noted for his shockingly realistic poetry about the horrors of trench warfare, was born...