Scotch whisky
We call it ‘whisky’, the world calls it ‘Scotch’, but the production of Scotch whisky is by law purely Scottish. The Scotch […]
Read MoreAuthor: Purple Brolly
My aim is to give a flavour of these precious islands we call 'the UK'. All research is based on a minimum of two publicly available sources, usually more.
David Bowie
David Bowie, née Jones, (1947-2016) was an extraordinary songwriter and singer, musician, painter and actor of the 1970s-80s who became a cult […]
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Charles Darwin
Shropshire-born Charles Darwin (1809-82) had just graduated from Cambridge when he received the exciting invitation to be the ‘gentleman passenger’ on the […]
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The F.A. Cup Final
The Football Association of England and Wales (F.A.) was founded in 1863. With the advent of the railways making team travel easier, […]
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The Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland covers both Ireland and Northern Ireland, since it was established long before the partition. It traces its roots […]
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The English Channel
The English Channel was formed by catastrophic flooding from the direction of the North Sea. This occurred anything from 10,000BC to 3,800BC […]
Read MoreThe English Channel was formed by catastrophic flooding from the direction of the North Sea. This occurred anything from 10,000BC to 3,800BC and was an after-effect of the sinking of the land mass known as Doggerland, which once connected the UK and Ireland to northern Europe and Scandinavia. The breach of the last sliver of land linking England to France was either the result of a megatsunami or the bursting of the banks of a massive lake.
The English Channel (or La Manche, in French) is 350 miles long but only 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, the Strait of Dover. It is also quite shallow there, as this was the breach point mentioned above. It is one of the world’s busiest shipping routes. Not only do captains have to take account of varying tides, currents and weather conditions such as fog, but they must also make sure they are sticking to the correct lane.
Marine craft of all kinds are travelling east, west, north and south, along with the occasional brave swimmer making the crossing for charity. The English Channel has been the scene of several ‘firsts’ over the years, including the first jet-powered hoverboard crossing in August 2019.
(Top image: Pierre Markuse at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)
Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing (1919-2013) had an eventful life and drew on her multi-faceted experiences to write about women in all types of situation. […]
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Parliamentary privilege
‘Parliamentary privilege‘ sets the boundaries for mutual non-interference between Parliament and the courts. It was laid down in the Bill of Rights […]
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Adventus Saxonum
Neighbours of the Angles, the Saxons’ own land, Old Saxony, was in north-east Germany. Their settlement of England in the mid-5th century, […]
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The Goon Show
WW2 brought many cultural changes, one of which was the birth of modern British comedy, led courageously by The Goon Show. From […]
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‘The Beano’ and ‘The Dandy’
Dundee publishers D.C. Thomson & Co. produced both ‘The Dandy‘ and ‘The Beano‘ from 1937 and 1938 respectively, with ‘The Dandy’ being […]
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