Family
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A family mystery: a 19th century letter from the Australian Goldfields
UPDATED, 6 JANUARY 2026 It was like opening a time capsule. When my grandmother died aged…
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Remembering Jim Callaghan: an underrated PM
James Callaghan, who died 20 years ago this week, might have been Britain’s most forgotten postwar…
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Five years ago: Britain goes into Covid lockdown
Five years ago today, our lives changed dramatically. Prime minister Boris Johnson announced on national TV…
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Last of the Few: Battle of Britain pilot John Hemingway dies, aged 105
The BBC today reported that the last surviving Battle of Britain pilot has died. Group Captain…
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‘Works hard not always with success’ – The Guardian features my old school report comments
The Guardian newspaper has been running an amusing correspondence about school reports in its letters column.…
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Headlines from my 50 year old childhood scrapbook
Do any children today keep a scrapbook? It seems very unlikely given almost every aspect of…
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Fifty years ago: second election in a year
Fifty years ago today, I broke the light in the loft of our Cardiff home. I…
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The 19th century US president with grandchild alive in 2024
One of my weekly pleasures is reading Jonn Elledge’s latest Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything. It’s…
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The end of coal power in Britain
The coal age in Britain is over. The country’s last coal-powered power station closed yesterday, marking…