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Sir Walter Raleigh died 400 years ago, on 29th Oct 1618. The famous English adventurer, writer, poet and courtier was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. The youngest of five sons in a devout Protestant family from Devon, he had faced persecution under Queen Mary. As a result, he developed a life-long hatred for Roman...

I’ve recently been sorting through some family photographs. What struck me was how easy it was to date them by what people were wearing. My grandmother always wore black, with a crinoline blouse, and had her hair in a bun. I picked up a photo of her in 1945. She looked, to a modern eye,...

(19 October 2018 – 19 February 2019) This month, the British Library is opening a landmark exhibition on the history, art, literature and culture of Anglo-Saxon England. It spans six centuries, from the eclipse of Roman Britain to the Norman Conquest.  The exhibition will even feature the Domesday Book, one of the most iconic manuscripts...

Many of us love animals and would be happy to help them on a regular, local basis.  Here are just some ideas to consider: The local animal shelter (INSERT NAME HERE). Why not volunteer some regular time this winter to helping them?   Many shelters only survive on volunteers, to do everything from admin to dog...

It is that time of year again – when the pumpkins with scary faces appear in our shops, surrounded by skeleton costumes, zombie masks, witch’s hats and sweets with gruesome names. How do Christian parents deal with this annual celebration of evil and death?  For of course 31st October has pagan Celtic roots – it...

All in the month of September Diary of a Momentous Year:  Surviving – and singing – in the trenches Time for a change of national anthem? Better than your average young swimmer! What did we do before Google? Peace for our time? Our local policemen Girl Guides to learn about money ** Editor:  We continue...

It was: 100 years ago, from 26th Sep to 11th Nov that the WW1 Meuse-Argonne Offensive took place in France. It was the last major battle of WW1, and the American Expeditionary Force’s largest and bloodiest operation of the war. Allied victory. 90 years ago, on 28th Sep 1928 that the use of cannabis was...

Modern people, distraught if deprived of ‘all mod con’, must be baffled how men survived year after year of living much of the time in the trenches of the Western Front. For month after month everything was ankle deep in mud. These were their living quarters, complete with primitive toilet arrangements, permanent damp, rats and...

During the World Cup in July we were serenaded with 26 assorted National Anthems – songs intended to infuse players and fans with patriotic fervour. Most of them were predictable. Even if you didn’t know the language, you could guess the message: ‘our country’s better than your country’. A few sounded downright aggressive, but without...

The youngest person to swim the English Channel was a British boy, Tom Gregory, who was 11 years and 336 days old when he did it 30 years ago this month, on 6th September 1988. Tom was trained for the event by the legendary John Bullet, who ran the local pool in Eltham, south-east London....

Google, the internet search company, was founded 20 years ago this month, on 4th September 1998, by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both students at Stanford University in California.  The company was initially based in a friend’s garage. The friend – Susan Wojcicki – is now CEO of YouTube. The company developed from an idea for...

Eighty years ago this month, on 30th September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned to England in triumph after signing the Munich Agreement with Hitler, declaring there would be “peace for our time”. This is often misquoted as “peace in our time” (as in the Book of Common Prayer) and in that form was...