Story Search Results

Like Father, Like Sons #21

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SONS:          As previously mentioned in earlier blogs my dad used to be a racing driver during the 1950s and ran his own team in the 1960s, travelling all over Europe in his trusty Volkswagon van with his two mechanics and driver.   He didn’t have big sponsorship money behind him and most of it was done on a shoestring but he came back with lots of funny stories of their van breaking down or some rural ‘hotel’ that they had stayed in.  From each country that he visited he always brought me back a doll dressed in the traditional costume of that country.  There was quite a collection and I still have them; I used to put them on d...

The Kitchen Maid's Story #35

THE KITCHEN MAID’S STORY:      If you were young, free and single – oh, and very well-to-do – the 1920s was the decade to live in!   The upper classes had lots of time on their hands and enjoyed post-First World War delights such as the theatre and jazz clubs. Not so for the lower classes, in particular a young girl who was to become the kitchen maid at Hoar Cross Hall in the 1920s.  The ‘depression’ after the First World War brought stark poverty to her home and many like her.  Her name was Jean Rennie, and she was extremely intelligent having won a scholarship to Glasgow University to study French and music.   However, the £5 bursary she g...

Mediaeval Mayhem!

...here were lots of nibbles and quite a lot of champagne flowing and the newspapers and radio stations turned up to take lots of photos of us all in various poses and record interviews with the cast.  It was a lovely, warm Autumn day and many of the photos were taken outdoors.  I remember it turning out to be quite a party, even though it started at 9.30 in the morning; as the day wore on the organist started playing a few of the songs we would be doing at the banquets, and everyone started dancing and singing along – it was 4pm by the time we finished! And so arrived the day of the first banquet.  All the furniture and costumes from the Chinese Room and Bal...

Alice - the ghost in the mirror

...ALICE – THE GHOST IN THE MIRROR:       In 1865 Lewis Carroll wrote another story about Alice following on from ‘Alice in Wonderland’.   It was called ‘Alice through the Looking Glass’.  In this story Alice climbs onto the mantlepiece over the fireplace in her lounge and finds that she can climb through the mirror into another world which is reversed, just like a reflection.  Once again, she encounters strange figures in a world dominated by a chess set and nursery rhyme characters, among others.  But what inspired Lewis Carroll to write about a little girl having lots of adventures? In the 1850s Charles Dodgson (Carroll’s real name) studied...

Like father, like sons #20

...LIKE FATHER, LIKE SONS:        As previously mentioned in earlier blogs my dad used to be a racing driver during the 1950s and ran his own team, Shardlow Motor Racing, in the 1960s, travelling all over Europe in his trusty Volkswagon van (see picture above) with his two mechanics and racing driver.   He didn’t have big sponsorship money behind him and most of it was done on a shoestring but he came back with lots of funny stories of their van breaking down or some rural ‘hotel’ that they had stayed in.  From each country that he visited he always brought me back a doll dressed in the traditional costume of that country.  There was quite a collectio...

Alice - the ghost in the mirror #38

...rl having lots of adventures? Alice climbing through the Library mirror   In the 1850s Charles Dodgson (Carroll’s real name) studied at Christ Church in Oxford. A new dean, Henry Liddell, began working there around about that time and brought with him his wife and young family. One of his daughters was called Alice and this little girl was widely thought to be the inspiration behind his stories but Carroll always denied this. In 1852 he became a tutor for the children of Charles Wood of Hickleton Hall in Yorkshire. During the summer a friend of the children, Mary Heath, stayed at the hall and this is the little girl believed to be his inspiration for...