20th Century
Boxing Day Past
Yes, I know it isn’t Boxing Day, it’s the day after, but not being around a century ago I can’t repeat the newses from those days with the usual mildly exaggerated and slightly embellished personal [more…]
Always Worth Saying
20th Century
Christmas Past
If you think I can remember 1924, you’re wrong. One relies upon our friends at the British Newspaper Archive. Ten decades ago some newspapers did publish on Christmas Day. The Sutton & Epsom Advertiser was [more…]
Biography
Book Review, ‘Unleashed’ by Boris Johnson
The second-ever greatest Johnson of words, Samuel, the 18th-century lexicographer, informs us, “When a man is tired of London he is tired of life”. Three centuries later, no matter what we think of life we’re [more…]
19th Century
Enemies Within: Mouchard!
Autumn 1899, just weeks before the turn of a new century, saw two men released from Pentonville Prison on London’s Caledonian Road. Jailed seven years previously following an anarchist plot in Walsall, some continued to [more…]
Arts
Always Worth Saying’s Question Time Review
Question Time 5th December 2024 The Panel: Jacqui Smith (Labour) Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative) Nigel Farage (Reform UK) Alastair Campbell (Author & Podcaster) Venue: Lincoln We can vote them out but we can’t get rid of [more…]
19th Century
Enemies Within, Part Four
In late February of 1894, a far-fetched tale appeared in the London penny dreadful newspapers. It concerned the untimely death of an anarchist, Martial Bourdin, blown up by his own bomb near the Royal Observatory [more…]
Arts
Always Worth Saying’s Question Time Review
Question Time 28th November 2024 The Panel: Lisa Nandy (Labour) Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative) Mariella Frostrup (Broadcaster) Rory Stewart (Podcaster) Anand Menon (UK in a Changing Europe) Venue: London Jacob Rees-Mogg spent his childhood in Somerset [more…]
19th Century
Enemies Within: Anarchy!
Only the nieve might think the nighttime streets of 1894 Soho, a den of immigrants and nere-do-goods, were not already alive with talk of the events of the previous chilly February afternoon. Passers-by investigating an [more…]
Arts
Always Worth Saying’s Question Time Review
Question Time 21st November 2024 The Panel: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour) Harriett Baldwin (Conservative) Daisy Cooper (LibDem) Minette Batters (former NFU president) Venue: Trowbridge Nick Thomas-Symonds, not his real name (not double-barrelled; Thomas was his mother’s [more…]