All articles in Society & Culture
10th February, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, History, Society & Culture
Nelson Mandela: Release and reconciliation
Mandela was released from prison on 11 February 1990. Despite elaborate planning, the event flirted with fiasco. A vast crowd thronged the sweltering Grand Parade in Cape Town, waiting for hours. An unruly fringe began to loot shop windows; police fired rubber bullets and shotgun…
4th February, 2016 in History, Society & Culture
Reminiscences of the Queen’s Coronation
The 1950s saw a major shift in the lifestyles of many in Britain. The austerity that had dogged the 1940s after the end of the Second World War began to give way to better times. Employment levels rose to new heights, white consumer goods appeared in shop windows for the first ti…
4th January, 2016 in Folklore, Society & Culture, Women in History
Attitudes towards women in the Tudor period
If you ever take yourself on a tour of the dungeons below Norwich Castle Museum you will be introduced to any number of instruments of torture from long ago. But the ones that really capture the public imagination are the ducking stool and scold’s bridle, said to have been used i…
21st December, 2015 in History, Society & Culture, True Crime
The year of the Ripper
Capitalism is in crisis. Riots sweep through London and protesters occupy famous public spaces. An Old Etonian prime minster struggles to steer the country through an economic depression while vast sums are spent for the Jubilee celebrations of an elderly queen. There are concern…
18th December, 2015 in Local & Family History, Military, Society & Culture, Women in History
East End suffragettes in the First World War
In popular accounts of the outbreak of the First World War in Britain, mention is sometimes made of the fact that the Women’s Social and Political Union suspended their militant campaign for the vote to take up an intensely nationalist, pro-war agenda. Sylvia Pankhurst and the ra…
18th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, Society & Culture
The reality of working for the Prime Minister
‘To work for a Prime Minister is a privilege only less than being Prime Minister himself. It compensates for the temporary destruction of one’s private life; in return for total commitment it offers continuous excitement. To enjoy it to the full, it should never be out of one’s m…
18th December, 2015 in Local & Family History, Society & Culture
Vintage visions above the high street
London’s often overlooked advertising history shows us how the capital’s businesses of old made use of hand-painted signs to inform, advertise and appeal to customers. Although we’re taught it’s not kind to pick favourites there are definitely one or two ‘ghost signs’ that hold a…
18th December, 2015 in Society & Culture
The unique joys of Speakers’ Corner
In June 2014 Sajid Javid, the then newly appointed Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, paid a visit to Hyde Park for a press conference marking the completion of revamped landscaping at Speakers’ Corner. It was a Thursday morning, so he should have been safe: no Sunda…
17th December, 2015 in Military, Society & Culture
Civilians in Palestine and Syria in the First World War
Today the attention of the world is focused on the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the Middle East, and the appalling conditions faced by those caught up in the fighting that is spreading across the region. However, for the most part the suffering of those same peoples has large…
16th December, 2015 in History, Society & Culture
Happy and Glorious, the Revolution of 1688
Changing the constitution – so what’s new? We’ve been here before! In 1688/89 King James II was pushed off the throne by William of Orange and his wife Mary. As a result of this ‘Glorious Revolution’ the powers of our monarchs were restricted and Parliament was given a much great…
16th December, 2015 in History, Society & Culture
13 things you never knew about British democracy
Whilst turnout is generally expected to increase for each election, it was not so long ago that a large percentage of the population was ineligible to vote. Before the 1832 Reform Act, only a small number of men (and no women) had the vote and the voting qualifications varied fro…
16th December, 2015 in Society & Culture, Women in History
Bringing up baby in the 1950s
Embarking on motherhood was a very different affair in the 1950s to what it is today. While much of the antenatal advice was sensible, if a trifle extreme, it has become a source of on-going debate over the years as to the value of the strictures laid down concerning the actual r…