Posted on May 16, 2013
"No-Cook Wife Made Marriage Tragedy"
I like cooking. I have many cookery books, and devour TV cooking shows. Unfortunately, I’m not very good at it. The validation that I am a ‘proper’ mother by cooking from scratch, the warm fuzzy glow as my children munch nutritious and delicious food, and the triumph of my inner domestic goddess all infuse my successful dishes. There aren’t many. Nine times out of ten my little cherubs push their plates...
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Posted on May 08, 2013
Jean-Frédéric Maximilien Count de Waldeck (to give him his full name, even though it is widely believed he ascribed the titular part himself) was an artist, engineer, cartographer, pornography publisher, explorer and all-round eccentric. No one is sure when he was born, but he died in 1875 (at the claimed age of 109 years and 45 days), after a life of travelling that included voyages to South Africa, Egypt and the ‘new world’ of the...
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Posted on May 02, 2013
"Chao Kung" (aka Trebitsch-Lincoln) in Shanghai, 1943. Image courtesy of www.wikimediacommons.org.
“I.T. Trebitsch-Lincoln came to see me this morning; he was dressed as a Buddhist monk, and now calls himself Chao Kung. He told me he had been a Buddhist for about 6 years, and was the first foreigner to become a monk, which gave him great influence in Buddhist circles.” British Consulate-General Shanghai, 1931.
So begins a document I...
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Posted on April 26, 2013
The apocalyptic rhetoric coming out of North Korea in recent weeks has reminded us all not only that the Korean War is, officially, still going on (although a ceasefire was concluded in 1953, the two sides have never signed a peace treaty) but of the particular combination of malevolence and apparent lunacy that characterises the Kim family’s regime. Since hostilities between the two Koreas began, more than 46,000 people have succeeded in leaving...
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Posted on April 22, 2013
If ever there was a master of reinvention on the music scene it has to be David Bowie, pop star and cultural icon.
Our forthcoming online collection Popular Culture in Britain and America II contains an incredible goldmine of printed and manuscript material, photographs and ephemera covering the 1950s to the 1970s. Included is a wonderful selection of photographs, documents and articles for many of the musicians and singers of the era including...
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Posted on April 18, 2013
Last week, after twenty-seven years of living in England, I finally earned the right to call myself British. On Wednesday (at about half past eight) I had my first ever plate of fish and chips.
As a fast-food lover who was born and raised by the seaside, my avoidance of this dish was a source of great shame and something I had long been meaning to address. So while I may not have realised the true Brit’s experience of fending off...
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Posted on April 18, 2013
We’re in the process of gathering materials related to the history of wheat for Global Commodities, Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange. I have to admit, amongst the other commodities we’ve focused on (including gold, spices, tea and chocolate), wheat wasn’t standing out as the most exciting!
But I’ve been working with some really interesting documents that have proved to me that wheat is NOT boring. The front cover to this 1988...
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Posted on April 15, 2013
With the death of Margaret Thatcher dominating the British headlines, assessments of her political legacy have likewise come thick and fast. In this context it’s illuminating to look back at some of the comments which accompanied the first election victory that placed Thatcher firmly on the national stage. This was her replacement of Edward Heath as Conservative leader in February 1975, which receives coverage in newspapers in Popular...
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Posted on April 10, 2013
The British preoccupation with the weather is a long-standing foible known the world over. Not only does it seem to be a national characteristic, but conversation about the weather is useful social glue which brings us all together under a common umbrella (so to speak). It has come to my aid in those awkward social situations when forced into conversation with complete strangers, and it is handy for chit-chat with neighbours and in queues (or...
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Posted on April 05, 2013
Increasingly tempted by a flutter on this weekend’s Grand National, I find myself drawn into the spirit of the races and reminded of a wartime account of a day at the Epsom pony races I recently encountered whilst working on the latest instalment to our wonderful Mass Observation resource.
A thoroughly entertaining read, this manuscript account, written by one of the Mass Observation observers, describes the event marking the end...
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