Our 100th Video!

We’ve just posted our 100th video!

Since our humble beginnings in August 2021 we’ve welcomed twenty-four guest contributors to our YouTube channel and blog, as well as two new additions to our original line-up of five.

We’ve also bid farewell to two Time Tunnellers: Jeannie Waudby and Catherine Randall. Parting is always such sweet sorrow, but the friendships we have made have not ended with their time in the group.

Part of the reason we formed the Time Tunnellers was as a place for authors of historical fiction for children to support and encourage each other, and this will always be the case: once a Time Tunneller, always a Time Tunneller!

Thousands of people have watched over 200 hours of our videos, and over 150 people have joined us as regular YouTube subscribers. If you’ve not subscribed yet, you can do it today! Head on over to our YouTube channel and click ’subscribe’ - and don’t forget to click the bell icon to allow all notifications: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY7LQZiq-eVaIg4AINuLpKg

We’ve covered almost the entire history of the world, from Ancient Egypt up to the Second World War and beyond - and we’re not going to stop now! We’ve had a blast researching subjects as varied as the history of soap and glass, the legacy of slavery in the London Docklands, Christmas traditions, gladiatorial combat, pirates, queens, earls and criminals - and setting a weekly writing challenge to go with each one.

We’d like to take a moment to thank you, dear reader, for reading our blog and watching our videos. If you’ve shared the Time Tunnellers with teachers and librarians that you know, then thank you again! Without our readers and watchers we are nothing. We look forward to delving further into the stories in history with you, and sharing the fascinating things we find.

A new member of the team …

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that we said we’ve welcomed two new additions to the team. So far you will only have met one, and we’re pleased and proud to be able to introduce the second one to you today!

Robin Scott-Elliot is a Scottish author of children's historical fiction, including 'Sweet Skies', 'The Acrobats of Agra', and his latest book 'Finding Treasure Island', which traces the origins of Robert Louis Stevenson's famous adventure. Robin worked for many years as a sports journalist, writing for the BBC, ITV, Sunday Times and Independent, before packing it all in to become a children's author. We asked Robin to tell our followers a little bit more about himself ...

Hi Robin. To start with, can you tell us what led you to exchange journalism for children's fiction?

My children! It was a combination of moving home to Scotland and our two daughters making me promise to write a story for them – on long journeys I used to tell them Scottish stories, a mix of myth and history, part made up, part what I could remember my granny and mum telling me. Now they wanted me to write one down. So I made a promise.

Ten years ago, when we decided to leave London for Scotland, I swapped roles with my partner. She travels a lot for her job in TV so I stayed home with the kids and gradually did less journalism and more story writing. It was Karen who gave me the opportunity to have a proper go at writing for children – and Iona and Torrin who pestered me to write for children. I owe the three of them big time!

So why did you make historical fiction your genre of choice?

History was my favourite subject at school and I’ve never lost interest in it. I’m probably a frustrated historian at heart. It was also my favourite genre to read for as long as I can remember. I used to like Rosemary Sutcliffe’s Roman stories or DK Broster’s Jacobite trilogy. Even my comics/graphic novels were historical when I was at school – Tintin or Asterix.

When it comes to writing historical fiction, I like the idea of putting a character of mine into a real moment in time. Or trying to write a real person, like Robert Louis Stevenson in Finding Treasure Island; work out what they might have been like and bring them back to life – while making sure you try to be true to who they were.

Is there an era, event or person you'd really love to cover, but you haven't been able to yet?

Lots! That’s the great thing about writing historical fiction – there are so many places to go, stories to discover. For the Acrobats of Agra it was one line in an old history book – “among those trapped in the siege was a French travelling circus” – that sparked the story. You never know what you’re going to find or where it might take you.

I’ve always wanted to write something about Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite march to Derby. Or one set way back in the days when the Lord of the Isles held sway in Scotland. Or a story set around the Russian Revolution and Civil War. Or the French Revolution – revolutions and rebellions are always good settings for a story I think! Or how about fictionalising Camille Fily, who rode the Tour de France in 1904 aged 17, the youngest ever rider, a race full of cheating and fighting and guns – and some cycling!

The book I’ve just finished writing is set in the years after the Second World War. It’s about the Ratlines, the escape routes Nazis used to get out of Europe, and revenge. I’m interested in what happens to people after major events. Because that’s the thing that fascinates – history never ends. What happened next? There’s always something to find.

And what are you hoping for as a member of the Time Tunnellers?

To burrow into all sorts of different periods of history and help retell the stories. History is not just about kings and queens and generals and prime ministers. The history of children, and children’s contribution to history, is so often overlooked – Svetlana Alexeivich, a brilliant oral historian, wrote a staggering book called Last Witnesses, recording memories of children in the Soviet Union during the Second World War. She’s tried to make sure what young people went through is not forgotten.

You Time Tunnellers make history come alive and I’d like to help do that as well. Some of the most successful podcasts at the moment, being downloaded in their millions, are about history – people are interested in our pasts. Because history is exciting. And history matters, always has and always will.

Thanks so much for answering our questions, Robin. We can’t wait to see where our time tunnelling adventures take us next!

Looking back

Our 100 videos so far have provided us with some great moments and brilliant memories. Here are some reflections from Time Tunnellers old and new:

Ally Sherrick

Settings are often the first spark for my own stories and I've particularly enjoyed my fellow Time Tunnellers' 'on location' videos.

Favourites include Susan's trip into the brilliant miniature world of engineering toymaker maestro, Frank Hornby at the museum dedicated to his inspirational creations at Maghull, near Liverpool.

Also Barbara's guided tour of the atmospheric Culloden Battlefield site, near Inverness, the setting for her exciting Jacobite Rebellion book 'The Reluctant Rebel'.

And then there's Catherine's post from the Wright Brothers National Memorial Museum in North Carolina, USA all about the famous early pioneers of aviation - 'First to Flight'.

And I had great fun out in the wilds myself doing a spot of Time Tunnelling filming at one of my best-loved historic sites in the UK, the ruins of Chysauster Romano-British village near Penzance.

History and the stories hidden inside it are all around us - you just need to remember to pack your curiosity. Oh, and something to dig with too!

Barbara Henderson

What a long way we have come since those very early tentative conversations about ‘maybe doing something for those of us who write historical fiction’. What a learning curve it has been too - I had done very little video recording and editing until we started the YouTube channel.

I am obviously thrilled to have another Scot on the Time Tunnellers team in Robin now, too - and for me, time-tunnelling has been a brilliant excuse to explore some places which were significant in Scotland’s past for myself. Yes, all these videos have been challenging to record or edit at times - but what I love is that they are now there as a resource for schools whenever they may want them. Take a look!

Sometimes the best videos are the ones about history you didn’t know you wanted to know about! For me, an example of that was Catherine’s video about the history of holidays, Thomas Cook and all that! She gets extra brownie points for dressing up too - I loved it, and I think that any youngsters will find it interesting too.

The same goes for Ally Sherrick’s mediaeval banquet video- who knew that putting a meal on the table could be so complicated! And again, much kudos for the dramatic presentation and props - it goes a long way for me as a Drama teacher.

Another favourite was Susan Browrigg’s video on female pirates - I had never given any thought to the fact that pirates may have been women, not had I heard of the famous pirate graveyard!

I also loved Matt’s recent video offering a tour of a Tudor hall - especially the nifty manoeuvring across an actual map - an ideal resource for anyone studying the Tudors.

My favourite video by Matt must be the one on the ghost signs - I had never, ever really noticed them, but on a recent trip to London I could not help looking up - only because I had watched his video. As I said - a bit of history that I didn’t know I wanted to know about - but I really did!

In terms of Guest Time Tunnellers, Lindsay Littleson’s video on travelling in 3rd class on Titanic was a real eye opener, and I think that schools would find it really fascinating. We should be proud of our back catalogue!

Matthew Wainwright

From the first time I saw one of the Time Tunnellers’ videos I was hooked! Their enthusiasm and passion for history shone through, and I learned more than I thought possible in the space of three and a half minutes. TED Talks, eat your heart out!

I remember thinking what a precious thing it was to have authors talking about history. Children relate to authors in a particular way - they trust them as custodians of stories, and often feel like they've come to know their favourite authors just through reading their books … which I suppose is quite possible, in a way.

Having authors talk about historical subjects gave them a special kind of life - and there was always the fact that you then had a brilliant book to go to if you wanted to learn even more!

The first videos I remember seeing were their Birth of a Book series for World Book Day 2022, followed closely by a powerful run of videos for Women's History Month. They got me hooked!

Aside from those, one of my favourites was Catherine Randall's overseas location shoot for The Lost Colony - the story of the first English settlers on Roanoke Island in North Carolina, who vanished without a trace in the late 16th century. I love a good mystery, and it felt very exotic to have a Time Tunneller reporting from the states!

I was thrilled, honoured, and a little disbelieving when I was asked, first to contribute as a guest, and then to join the team in late 2022. It's been a fantastic year, working with brilliant colleagues to produce outstanding videos that I know will be used and enjoyed for many years to come.

Susan Brownrigg

I am so proud that the Time Tunnellers have achieved 100 videos! I have relished the opportunity to explore a new topic when it has been my turn and I have ventured out to some fab locations for research including Windermere, Worsley Delph, Maghull, Pendle Hill and of course Blackpool!

I have also had great pleasure inviting some of my favourite authors to take part including M A Bennett, Jenni Spangler, Marie Basting, Laura Noakes and Richard O'Neill among them! I do hope you will watch their videos, if you haven't already!

I have learned so much history from watching the Time Tunnellers videos and I hope you will investigate our playlists and see just what a variety of subjects we have covered since we began back in in August 2021.

Recording the videos is always fun, even if it takes several takes, but the one I most enjoyed making was the BBC one when I got to play homage to presenter Annette Mills and the famous puppet!

Congratulations Time Tunnellers! Here's to the next 100 videos!

Competition Time!

To celebrate our 100th video, we’ve joined forces for a historical hamper giveaway! We’ve all donated books, making a great mini-library for any classroom or home bookshelf.

Ally Sherrick

The Queen's Fool

Vita and the Gladiator

Barbara Henderson

Rivet Boy

The Chessmen Thief

The Siege of Caerlaverock

Matthew Wainwright

Out of the Smoke

Through Water and Fire

Robin Scott-Elliot

Sweet Skies

Finding Treasure Island

Susan Brownrigg

Gracie Fairshaw and the Mysterious Guest

Kintana and the Captain’s Curse

Entering is very simple: just head on over to the giveaway posts on our social media channels and like, repost (where possible) and tag a friend in the comments. Don’t forget to make sure you’re following us so we can get in touch if there’s good news!

A Very Merrie Tudor Christmas! with Time Tunneller Matthew Wainwright

People all over the world celebrate Christmas in different ways. From the enormous Yule Goat constructed of straw in Sweden, to the Pastorelas (Shepherd’s Plays) of Mexico, to a game of Trivial Pursuit alongside a box of Quality Streets in the UK, people have created their own traditions around this major Christian festival.

But what about people in the past? How different were their Christmas celebrations from our own? To find out a little bit about what might have changed, let’s go back five hundred years to Tudor England under the reign of King Henry VIII …

The Twelve Days of Christmas

You’ve probably heard the carol that begins, “On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me …” and ends with the unfortunate recipient of the gifts having their house overrun by poultry and leaping lords.

In Tudor times Christmas really was twelve days long! Starting on December 25th and ending on January 5th, people downed tools and took part in a number of traditions, one for each of the twelve days.

On Christmas Eve (December 24th) people would decorate their spinning wheels with greenery brought in from outside, signifying that work was stopping for the duration of Christmas. Christmas trees came a lot later - in Tudor times people would ‘deck the halls with boughs of holly’, and festoon their houses with ‘the holly and the ivy’.

On Christmas Day itself people would eat! The Tudors knew how to throw a party, and they would have feasted in the best style they could afford.

Roast meats featured prominently (including Turkeys, which were a new delicacy and could be seen being driven in huge flocks from London to Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire) as well as pies that contained two or three different kinds of bird meat alongside fruit and spices.

Mince pies were originally filled with actual minced meat, spiced and mixed with fruit - until later the meat was taken out, and all that remained was the spiced fruit with the rather confusing name of ‘mincemeat’!

One famous tradition is that of the Boar’s Head, commemorated in the Boar’s Head Carol. In a spectacle echoing back to ancient pagan origins, a boar’s head would be cooked and garlanded with fruits and herbs, and brought into the feasting hall on a magnificent platter. The Boar’s Head Feast is still celebrated in Oxford University’s Queen’s College to this day!

The Feast of St. Stephen was on what we now call Boxing Day. It was a day for charity and giving to the poor, and it’s immortalised in the carol ‘Good King Wenceslas’ who looked out on the Feast of Stephen to see a poor man struggling through the snow, and was moved to bring him ‘flesh and wine’.

Child Bishops were appointed in churches from 6th December until Childermas on 28th December. A young boy, usually a member of the choir, would be adorned with all the regalia of a bishop for this time, and would take services and preach sermons!

Childermas commemorated the children that were killed on the orders of King Herod, as depicted in the moving Coventry Carol:

O sisters too, how may we do For to preserve this day This poor youngling for whom we sing, “Bye bye, lully, lullay?”

New Year’s Day was the traditional day for giving gifts. People gave gifts to show their appreciation to those in authority over them, and those at court were expected to give presents to the king.

Tudor Christmas presents could be expensive - but they were an excellent way to make sure you stayed in favour in the coming year! Just think about that next time you’re doing your Christmas shopping …

Father Christmas

One of the most endearing and bizarre Tudor Christmas traditions was the appointment of a Lord of Misrule to preside over the twelve days of festivities.

Revived by Henry VII, the post of Lord of Misrule was a way to upset the normal order of things. Someone would be chosen to direct all the Christmas celebrations, and would preside over them in a mock court, receiving mock homage from the revellers.

In Scotland, the same position was held by the Abbot of Unreason - although with the progression of the Reformation across Britain these traditions slowly faded away.

The idea of a Lord of Misrule does persist today, however, in the unlikely form of Father Christmas! Lords of Misrule were sometimes given names like ‘Captain Christmas’, ‘The Christmas Lord’ or ‘Prince Christmas’.

In 1616, the playwright Ben Johnson put on a Christmas play featuring an old man called ‘Christmas’ or ‘Old Gregorie Christmas’. He had sons and daughters called ‘Mince Pie’, ‘Misrule’, ‘Carol’ and others, and he had a long beard.

So the idea continued through the 1600s, the character appearing in numerous Christmas plays. He always personified Christmas parties and games, however, and had less to do with the idea of bringing presents. And as you can see in the picture above, he sometimes rode a goat!

Another tradition had been around in Europe for a long time - that of St. Nicholas, based on the real-life figure of a Bishop from Turkey. On St. Nicholas’ day (6th December) children were given presents to commemorate his gold-giving exploits.

According to tradition, St. Nicholas (or ‘Sinterklaas’) would deliver presents by passing through locked doors or descending chimneys. In Dutch markets, Sinterklaas impersonators could be found wearing his distinctive red and white robes …

It’s possible that the legend of Sinterklaas crossed the Atlantic to the North American Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, which later became New York.

However it happened, Santa Claus born, and eventually immortalised in Clement Clark Moore’s poem, ‘The Night Before Christmas’, where we find many of the features of our familiar Santa, including a huge belly, red costume and reindeer.

For a while Santa Claus and Father Christmas existed side-by-side, even appearing together in an 1864 story by Susanna Warner. But eventually the two merged, although in the UK the character has traditionally kept the name Father Christmas, harking back to the Lord of Misrule and providing us with a fascinating link to the Tudors!

And Christmas traditions are still evolving, with Elf on the Shelf and other festive celebrations taking their place in the hearts and lives of British people.

Writing challenge

For your writing challenge this week, become a Lord of Misrule! Come up with your own crazy Christmas tradition, and make it as weird and wonderful as you like, to rival the things you've read in this post. Perhaps you decide that everyone should bow to cats on the Thursday before Christmas, or that presents are brought to good children by flying ants ...? Go wild!

About the author

Matthew Wainwright is an author of children's historical fiction, and a member of the Time Tunnellers. His first book, 'Out of the Smoke' is set in Victorian London and was inspired by the work of Lord Shaftesbury with chimney sweeps and street gangs. His second book, 'Through Water and Fire', is set in Tudor England and features Anne Boleyn and the English Reformation.

For more information on Matthew and his books, visit his website: matthewwainwright.co.uk

You can buy 'Through Water and Fire' online, or from your local bookshop. Buy here.

Sources https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/A-Tudor-Christmas/
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/members-area/kids/kids-tudors/twelve-days-of-christmas/
https://kriii.com/news/2022/medieval-christmas-the-boar-s-head-festival/
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/occasions/christmas/coventry-carol-lyrics-meaning-history/
https://www.britannica.com/art/Lord-of-Misrule-English-medieval-official
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/christmas/the-history-of-father-christmas/