Archive

The Coronation: God Save King Charles!

As mentioned in my coronation post earlier this week, the coronation ceremony is hallowed by time. Edgar was the earliest English king to be crowned, at Bath Abbey in 973; Robert the Bruce was hastily crowned King of Scots at Scone (rhymes with ‘spoon’) in 1306… Read More

The Coronation: God Save the King!

On 6 May 2023 Charles Philip Arthur George Mountbatten-Windsor will be crowned King Charles III in a coronation ceremony dating back, if not to time immemorial, at least ten centuries. Just to be absolutely clear, Charles is of course already King, for the Crown knows no… Read More

Veg Power

‘Eat largely of spinach.’ recommended John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, in his best-selling 1747 Primitive Physick: An Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Diseases.1 *** ‘What a pleasure to write about my favourite vegetable!’ I thought when asked to write this piece. I don’t recall when I first… Read More

National Grammar Day

Saturday 4 March marks National Grammar Day (henceforth, for brevity, NGD). Time to move into top grammar gear. Are you a tad hazy about the difference between a conjunction and a preposition? And what exactly are parts of… Read More
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St David’s Day/Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant

St David and St David’s Day In stark contrast to St George, who was born in modern-day Turkey, died in what is now Israel and never set foot in England, Saint David, or Dewi Sant, the patron saint of Wales, was a Welshman from his tonsure to the calloused soles… Read More

International Mother Language Day

What and when is International Mother Language Day? It’s a United Nations initiative first celebrated in 2000. It falls on 21 February each year. The day aims to make people more aware of how many living languages there are and to encourage multilingual education based on someone’s own language, the… Read More

National Backwards Day

Able was I ere I saw Elba.  !Day Backwards National of anniversary sixtieth the for piece this writing am I. That’s right. This day of fun and pranks, National Backwards Day, 31 January, intended to get children in particular thinking creatively and box proverbial the outside, was inaugurated in 3691. Read More

Antarctica Day

This Thursday, 1 December, marks the annual Antarctica Day. If you’re wondering why such a day exists, its raison d’être is to celebrate the signing in 1959 of the Antarctic Treaty by the twelve countries then actively exploring the continent. The treaty recognised that this, the… Read More
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Advent and Advent Calendars

“The Lord Will Come and not be Slow”(John Milton) Ah, Advent! The season when children’s faces and some adults’ faces, too – mine, anyway – light up while, day by day, they open whatever kind of Advent calendar has come their way. I vividly remember, aged… Read More
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