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All in the month of November Remembering Lord Tennyson Sullivan – of Gilbert and Sullivan George Bernard Shaw – the man who wrote Pygmalion Take it easy on those country roads We are losing our peregrine falcons Editor:  An idea for your magazine for Remembrance Day Songs of Praise and the nation’s favourite school hymn...

It was: 175 years ago, on19th November 1850 that Alfred, Lord Tennyson, became Poet Laureate of the UK (until 1892). 125 years ago, on 22nd November 1900 that Arthur Sullivan, British composer, died.  Best known for his collaborations with the dramatist W S Gilbert on operas including H.M.S. Pinafore and The Pirate of Penzance. He...

Some 125 years ago, on 22nd November 1900, Arthur Sullivan, the British composer, died.  Best known for his collaborations with the dramatist W S Gilbert on light operas including HMS Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance, he also wrote the music to the hymn Onward, Christian Soldiers. Sullivan was born in 1832 in Lambeth. His...

It was 175 years ago, on 19th November 1850, that Alfred, Lord Tennyson became Poet Laureate of the UK until his death in 1892. He succeeded William Wordsworth and became known as the poet of the Victorian age. Born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, in 1809, he was one of 11 children of a mentally unstable and...

Seventy-five years ago, on 2nd November 1950, George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and literary critic, died.  Best known for Pygmalion, he was winner of the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature and co-founder of the London School of Economics. Shaw, who was born in Dublin of English Protestant descent in 1856, was a failed novelist before...

Country roads may look inviting to drive, but the statistics tell a different story. For collisions on rural roads are around four times more likely to result in a fatality. Such is the finding of the NFU Mutual Rural Road Safety Report 2024. It found that in 2023, an average of one in every 32...

Our peregrine falcons are dying. We have lost 80pc of our UK population in the past 50 years. That make them one of the most-at-risk British birds. Peregrine falcons are special – they are among the fastest animals on the planet, and the largest species of falcon in the UK. But although some rewilding and...

Our WW2 veterans are dying out, and so this year, how about making a special effort to publicly thank any WW2 veterans in your church and community in the November issue of your magazine?    You may have read the recent news story about the Arctic Convoys veteran, Dougie Shelley, who asked for birthday cards...

This autumn the BBC has been in the process of discovering our favourite school hymn. It gave the public a shortlist of 50 hymns to choose from. The vote was organised by the BBC’s Songs of Praise team, with an accompanying programme, The Big School Assembly Singalong, hosted by singer and presenter Aled Jones. Aled...

All in the month of October Those magnificent men in their flying machine… The Iron Lady of Britain The brave Desmond Doss of Hacksaw Ridge Surge in violent attacks on A&E nurses The scary amount of money spent on Halloween How does our nearest airport rank? Increase in attacks on cats and wild birds **...

It was: 750 years ago, on 27th Oct 1275 that the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands is traditionally considered to have been founded. 200 years ago, on 25th Oct 1825 that Johann Strauss II, was born. This Austrian composer is best known for his waltzes, including The Blue Danube. 125 years ago, on 20th...

It was 125 years ago, on 20th October 1900, that the American aviation pioneers the Wright Brothers made their first untethered glider flight at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina. This was a key moment in the history of aviation, although their first powered flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft came three years later, on 17th...