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Nearly 50,000 children in the UK are living with adults who are addicted to drugs or alcohol, according to recent Public Health England figures. That will include a proportion of middle class and professional families.

Satellite pictures of earth are usually beautiful, but not these: The Environment Agency has begun using satellite images to monitor plastic pollution off Britain’s shores, so that it can send clean-up teams in to protect wildlife. Each year the world makes about 380million tons of plastic.  At least eight million tons of the stuff ends...

Who thinks up tests like this?  Scientists have been out collecting spiders from rural and urban areas all across Europe, to test whether or not their natural fear of light is changing. They found that country spiders, regardless from which country, still prefer quiet, dark places.  However, urban spiders are becoming brazen, and are happy...

All in the month of December How Silent Night first began – 200 years ago Peaceful Praise on a silent night The Conversion of Ebenezer Scrooge How A Christmas Carol first began – 175 years ago The legacy of Miss Potter The podcast phenomenon Expensive Christmas cracker The great ‘Takeaway’ take-over  ** Editor:  We continue...

It was 200 years ago, on 24th December 1818 that the popular Christmas carol ‘Silent Night’ was performed for the first time, at midnight mass at a parish church in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It had been written just a few hours earlier by teacher and church organist Franz Xaver Gruber, to lyrics by priest...

One of the most popular Christmas carols, Silent Night, was performed for the first time 200 years ago this month, on 24th December 1818, at midnight mass at a parish church in Oberndorf, near Salzburg, Austria. The carol was originally a poem, written in six verses by priest Joseph Mohr two years earlier. Because the...

200 years ago this Christmas Eve a parish priest near Salzburg in Austria and his organist wrote a new carol for the midnight mass. The priest, Fr Joseph Mohr, provided the words in a poem he had recently written. The organist was Franz Xavier Gruber who created a tune of haunting beauty. The carol, Stille...

Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol was first published 175 years ago, on 19th December 1843, at a time when the author was hard-pressed financially but appeared inspired by his themes of redemption and poverty. The first edition sold out by Christmas Eve, and by the end of the next year 13 editions had been...

We think of the traditional British Christmas as a few days off work, a family get-together and a big meal. In fact, that only goes back to Victorian times. Before that it was a religious event, with church services and carols, but not a great community event. Among important influences on the change was a...

Beatrix Potter, the children’s writer and illustrator, died of pneumonia in Cumbria 75 years ago, on 22nd December 1943. Born in 1866 in Kensington to a well-off family, she had limited higher education but schooled herself to the extent that she could be described as a natural scientist, particularly in the study of fungi. She...

Do you listen to podcasts?  Then you are right ‘on trend’, because nearly six million adults in Britain are now listening to the audio format each week, according to Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator.  That is nearly double the number recorded five years ago. What’s most popular?  That Peter Crouch Podcast, produced by the BBC, where...

If you are looking to splash around a vast amount of money this Christmas, why not contact The Royal Mint?  It has just launched Britain’s most expensive ever Christmas crackers – which include a solid gold bar and gold diamond necklace. A pack of six of the crackers will set you back £5000, but at...