There is such a strong association between Christmas and bells. Images of them adorn our trees and greeting cards, and the faithful are summoned to church by them on Christmas morning. I wasn’t sure whether to post this as history or humour, but the humour is
Read more →A DAY WITH DR JOHNSON by EDITOR DES Oh dear… where to start?! Well, Pauline and Doctor Bob took me to London the other day to enhance my editorial knowledge and skills. We walked along the river from the Tower to Fleet Street, where all the
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LINDEN SHADBOLT – the child who stayed behind The following is a continuation of my convict ancestors’ story The Exoneration of Solomon Shadbolt. The first piece was prompted by what I saw as an unfair representation of my three times great-grandfather, in the late Maurice Shadbolts’s memoir
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A STORY ABOUT MY G-G-G-GRANDFATHER When Australian author Kate Grenville was researching her convict ancestor for the novel Secret River, she admitted to feeling slightly anxious about the nature of his crime. Theft was one thing, but what if he had been transported for something really serious;
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A DICTIONARY IS BORN IN STRAYA In 1812 the convict James Hardy Vaux (pictured ) produced what is credited as being the first Australian dictionary: A New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language. It was essentially a compilation of slang used by the ‘flash’ criminal element
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This brief article is a tribute to a very special Frenchman; Dr Auguste Ambroise Tardieu, who was born in Paris in 1818. Dr Tardieu headed the team of French doctors who performed a post-mortem on the disinterred body of English schoolgirl Marian Marsden in 1854.
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My friends, authors and historians Cora Weaver and Bruce Osborne , recently published a well researched, richly illustrated book called Celebrated Springs of the Malvern Hills. Here is small extract; These pure springs inspired the water-cure clinics at Malvern, lining the pockets of physicians such as Dr
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HELLO, I CHOSE (AND EDITED ) THIS STORY ABOUT MY DISTANT RELATIVES. IT’S A BIT SAD, BUT VERY INTERESTING……EDITOR DES. There are some touching links between the Teddy Bear, that quintessential symbol of childhood comfort and security, and the tragic loss of the passenger ship Titanic on
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STEAM AND SPEED The brilliant British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born at Portsmouth in 1806, the son of a highly regarded French engineer. Many thousands of Australians have a connection with Brunel as their ancestors emigrated on his innovative steamship, the SS Great Britain. At
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THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. In 1910 Henry Lawson wrote the following lines celebrating Sydney’s restorative Southerly Buster; ‘Tis a glorious mission , Old Sydney’s Physician Broom, Bucket and Cloth of the East, ‘Tis a breeze and a sprayer that answers
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