Advent Calendar December 8
When fire was a Christmas essential Bringing home the Yule Log You may do without beef and plum-pudding; even the absence of mince-pie may be tolerated…but a huge, heaped-up, over … Continue reading
Advent Calendar December 7th
Christmas tree up this weekend? The Christmas tree we are familiar with is a German custom. A number of historical sources say that Queen Charlotte, the mother of the Prince … Continue reading
Advent Calendar December 6th
It was Christmas Day in the workhouse Eventide. A Scene at the Westminster Union (workhouse) 1879. IT IS CHRISTMAS Day in the workhouse, and the cold, bare walls are brightWith … Continue reading
Advent Calendar December 5th
New Clothes for Christmas After the simple lines of the the Regency empire dress, big sleeves became the height of fashion. Above are the 1829 cartoons by William Heath that … Continue reading
Advent Calendar December 4th
A Very Proper Snow Lady Two women make a highly detailed Snow Lady in West Berkshire. The photograph was published in The Strand Magazine in 1892. It was a fairly … Continue reading
Advent Calendar December 3rd
The 1914 Christmas Truce This short film made by The Imperial War Museum in London explores what really happened in the trenches in the first Christmas of World War I … Continue reading
Advent Calendar December 1st
The First Christmas Card The first printed Christmas card was produced in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole, a civil servant who had helped Rowland Hill set up the Penny Post in … Continue reading
Mrs Finnegan has a Word for it
Mrs Finnegan performs an important public service by compiling a list of insults hurled on the back streets of Brighton. She also shares (with reservations) a recipe for homemade wine.
Mrs Finnegan Discovers 23 Ways Not To Die
If you want to stay safe, follow the advice Mrs Finnegan has quarried from centuries of folklore and young wives’ tale
Brilliant Opportunity for Disabled Writers at the Start of their Writing Career
Curtis Brown Creative is offering a free nine-month mentoring programme to four aspiring disabled authors. You can be at any stage of your writing career from just starting to having … Continue reading
What scares you? Talk, Discuss, Create
Emma Dalrymple, a former psychology lecturer, contacted me recently to ask if she could to use some of the exercises in Back to Creative Writing School at an event she … Continue reading
Mrs Finnegan is Blown Away by Stormy Weather and her Own Verse (which is much Worse)
Are you troubled by wind?The rain has lashed Brunswick Square* in recent days and the gales that followed tore tears from the eyes of young girls and DRIED the pavements … Continue reading
What I’m Doing Instead of the Thing I’m Supposed to be Doing
Yes, it’s time wasting, and yes I have plenty of other things I should doing and yet it makes me ponder on the nature of our existence
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 