Cropredy
Cropredy is a village in Oxfordshire which plays host every August to a music festival also simply…
‘Beowulf’
‘Beowulf’ is the oldest surviving and longest epic poem written in Old English, having 3,182 lines of…
Animal Rights
The UK passed the world’s first animal welfare law in 1822, with the Cruel Treatment of Cattle…
Dr Jane Goodall
As a young child, Dame Dr Jane Goodall was fascinated by the natural behaviour of animals and…
Professor Sir John Vane
Professor Sir John Vane, FRS, was born in Worcestershire in 1927 and from a young age showed…
The Catholic Church
In past centuries the Catholic Church played a large part in Britain’s politics, warfare, monarchy and everyday…
‘The Family’
Reality TV, the docu-soap and the fly-on-the-wall documentary can all thank the BBC’s 1974 television programme ‘The…
Monster Raving Loony Party
There is a zany element in British humour, which has, naturally, crept into the supposedly serious world…
Major Tim Peake
The first Briton in space was Yorkshire-born Dr. Helen Sharman (1963-) in 1991, who spent eight days…
Shrove Tuesday
Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, as it is more often called, is the last day before the…
Legal Aid
Since 1949 it has been possible to apply for financial help with legal costs under the Legal…
English words of Indian origin
The Oxford English Dictionary currently includes around one thousand words of Indian origin and the number continues…