All articles in Society & Culture
5th May, 2021 in Biography & Memoir, Society & Culture, Women in History
Josephine Butler: The Victorian feminist who campaigned for the rights of prostitutes
Josephine Butler was once described as ‘the most distinguished Englishwoman of the 19th-Century’. Born in 1828, she was the leader of a national women’s political campaign – one of the very first. As a woman, she defied Victorian convention by becoming involved in politics….
27th April, 2021 in Society & Culture, Transport & Industry
The call of the water: Life on Britain’s rivers and canals
Since being born on a Thames houseboat many moons ago the river has cast a spell across my soul; its soft lappings, its secret islets, its wildly changing moods – reckless and brave one minute, mournful and dissipated the next. My new book, Water Gypsies, is inspired of cour…
17th March, 2021 in History, Society & Culture, Women in History
A brief history of women in power
Historically, the most common way for a woman to become a ruler was as a regent. There were, however, many cases where the regent decided to stay in power. A prime example is Empress Wu Zetian who, as consort, ruled over China’s Tang Dynasty. She married Emperor Gaozong in 655; h…
16th March, 2021 in Society & Culture, Trivia & Gift
Ask the author: Yens Wahlgren on constructed languages
We spoke to Yens Wahlgren, author of The Universal Translator, about his love for constructed languages. You describe yourself as a xenosociolinguist, could you tell us what that means? Well, it’s a made up academic-sounding discipline for the study of how languages from outer sp…
18th November, 2020 in Local & Family History, Society & Culture
The cobbled street: Memories of a child
The cobbled streets of Leeds were paved with gold, industrial gold, that only found its way into entrepreneurial pockets of men clad in stiff white collars, frock coats, and gold Albert watchchains draped across their plump abdomens. Shoeless street urchins, gambolled from cobble…
4th November, 2020 in Society & Culture, Transport & Industry, Women in History
Married to a coal miner
Life was difficult for women from the coalfields during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Those girls who were daughters of miners understood some of the difficulties, but it was still their ambition to marry into the industry and take on the responsibility for looking…
21st July, 2020 in History, Society & Culture, Women in History
The life of an anchoress
The anchorite, or religious recluse, has been a part of Christian religious life since its early days. They lived solitary lives out in the desert – indeed, these solitaries became collectively known as the Desert Fathers. In Ireland the hermits often made their homes in rough st…
28th January, 2020 in Biography & Memoir, Society & Culture, Women in History
Flirting with fascism: Lady Houston and Oswald Mosley
In the mid-1930s Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists was going from strength to strength and in 1934 it had 40,000 members. Those who were tired of the economic and political stagnation of interwar Britain were attracted by Mosley’s nationalistic messages such as ‘Our first…
16th January, 2020 in Local & Family History, Society & Culture
Strange customs in the Garden of England
Every county of the UK has its own peculiar customs, such as the annual Cheese Rolling festival in Gloucester, the Welly Wanging from the West Country or the absurd Gurning Trials of the North East. Kent, the so-called ‘Garden of England’, tucked away in the bottom south-east cor…
4th December, 2019 in History, Society & Culture, Trivia & Gift
Christmas recipes from the past
A roast boar’s head along with roast goose and swan would have been the centrepieces of the Christmas dinner table in Norman castles. This rich meal would have been followed by bowls of dates, figs, apricots, raisins and pistachio nuts. These sweet treats would have been expensiv…
20th November, 2019 in Entertainment, Society & Culture
Playing Gay Q&A
The television set – the humble box in the corner of almost every British household – has brought about some of the biggest social changes in modern times. It gives us a window into the lives of people who are different from us: different classes, different races, different…
16th September, 2019 in History, Society & Culture
How an escaped slave became the most photographed American of the 19th century
When the first form of photography, the daguerreotype, became available in 1839 photographic portraits quickly became the ‘killer app’ for the new medium. Despite the discomfort of standing deadly still for several minutes while the picture was taken and the high cost (about a da…