The Holly and the Ivy

It had been dicey over the Big City. The flak had been murderous on the run-in and the radar predicted, master searchlights seemed to have had an unnerving accuracy that night. You could tell the [more…]

The words of the carol occur in three broadsides published in Birmingham in the early nineteenth century. An early mention of the carol’s title occurs in William Hone’s 1823 work Ancient Mysteries Described, which includes [more…]

It’s a somewhat inclement Sunday morning approaching the end of October, the lawn which just a few short weeks ago was dead and brown is now lush and green but under an inch of water [more…]