Where do you get your ideas? For me the things I want
to write about are the same things I was passionate about as a child.
I loved daytrips to Blackpool with my family when I
was growing up, visiting Blackpool Tower, the Illuminations and its
many other attractions. So, it felt right to set my 1930s Gracie Fairshaw mystery
series there.
For the third book in the series, Gracie Fairshaw and the
Missing Reel (published on World Book Day, March 7th) I decided to
set the story around the filming of a movie in the resort.
I knew that another Gracie, Gracie Fields – the Rochdale
born superstar singer and actress had made a film in Blackpool in 1934. In fact,
I had watched and studied Sing as We Go as part of my degree in journalism,
film & broadcasting as well as writing my dissertation on the actress!
Gracie Fields in a special issue of Picturegoer Magazine about Sing as We Go
(author's photograph)
I loved that the film was shot on location, with key
scenes recorded at the Pleasurebeach funfair, the open-air baths, sideshows and
the Blackpool Tower circus.
Basil Dean directing Sing as we Go at the open-air baths, Blackpool.
In my book, the cast and crew are recording a fictional thriller
called Room for a Traitor, when my heroine, young newspaper reporter, Gracie Fairshaw, learns that an important reel of film has gone missing.
To add authenticity to the film-making scenes, I visited Blackpool Central
Library and looked at old copies of the Gazette newspaper on microfiche (as I
had with the previous two Gracie books.)
I was able to see the cameras that were used and was
intrigued by the fact that Gracie had had a body double/stuntwoman. I went on to
learn that Lilian Tollis had been a stage actress herself as well as a dancer,
sometimes using the name Zetta Morenta.
Body double/Stunt woman Zetta Morenta had a close resemblance to actress Gracie Fields (photo Jackie Settle)
I knew I wanted to include a similar character in my
story – but I didn’t know much about stunt work. So, I did more research, reading a number of books on the subject.
I learned that in the early days of moviemaking, the
stars often performed their own stunts.
In the silent film era, directors, script writers and
performers were often women.
Half of all American films made before 1925 were
written by women!
Dramatic serials like the Perils of Pauline were very
popular with their cliffhangers, and gutsy heroines.
The female stars often performed their own stunts,
with many hired because they were strong swimmers, good at driving motorcars,
or were skilled acrobats.
Sometimes stuntwomen were hired, and then became leads
themselves, but as the work became better paid, men started to take over –
wearing wigs and dresses to look like the stars.
It was said that most stunt workers only lasted five
years. Lots were killed or badly injured. For example, in 1929, sixteen men
were killed, including three stunt pilots making the film Hell’s Angels!
(Sadly, stunt work is still very dangerous. Actor Rory
Kinnear, whose father died in a stunt accident, continues to campaign for
better training and awareness of the dangers involved.)
With the introduction of sound, cinema attendance grew
and the film making became big business – women were pushed aside, and only
certain poorer paid roles were generally deemed suitable for them.
Although Hollywood is often the place we associate with film making, Britain had its own studios, most were in London, but there was a northern company - Mancunian Films based in Manchester who also shot a movie in Blackpool - Holidays with Pay.
In 1927 the Cinematograph Films Act was introduced which insisted that a specific percentage of British produced movies that had to be shown domestically. Unfortunately while some brilliant movies were produced, this led to a lot of poorer quality ones too, dubbed 'Quota Quickies.'
The former Odeon cinema, Blackpool. It opened in 1939 and had 3,088 seats!
(author's photograph)
Unemployment in the 1930s saw people visiting the cinema as an escape from their worries. Many new cinemas were built, some in exotic architectural styles.
By 1938 there were 4,907 cinemas in the UK and around that same time Blackpool alone had 17!
Inspiration for two more characters in my book came
from a real-life director Alfred Hitchcock and editor/screenwriter Alma Reville.
They were married and often worked together on exciting thrillers including the
first British made ‘talkie’ Blackmail.
I also enjoyed setting scenes in Blackpool’s stunning
Winter Gardens. This Victorian era entertainment complex went through a
transformation in the 1930s. New rooms were created that looked like a Spanish
village, a pirate ship and a baronial hall! These new designs were created by
Andrew Mazzei, who also worked as an art director on British films!
The Spanish Hall, Winter Gardens (photograph Susan Brownrigg)
The climax of Gracie Fairshaw and the Missing Reel takes place on the roof of the Regent Cinema in Blackpool – which still exists today, as well as showing popular classic movies, it also houses an antiques centre. I was lucky to be allowed into the projection room - a real treat for a movie lover like me!
Susan Brownrigg in the projection room, The Regent Cinema,
Blackpool ( author's photograph)
Lights, camera, action!
A new movie being filmed in Blackpool is a real scoop for trainee reporter Gracie Fairshaw.
When she's invited to interview the star, Sally Sunshine, Gracie uncovers a plot as exciting as the one being filmed. Someone has stolen a vital film reel - and then a vicious attack is attempted on Sally!
In a world of body-doubles, stunts, costumes and makeup, not everything is what it seems. Gracie must go behind the scenes and work out, which of the cast and crew can;t be trusted before the shoot comes to a thrilling climax at the town's cinema.
Susan Brownrigg is the author of the Gracie Fairshaw mystery series and Kintana and the Captain's Curse, a treasure hunt adventure featuring pirates and lemurs! (UCLan Publishing)
My favourite books and films have always been the ones based true stories, which is probably why I became an author of nonfiction books. One of the things I love most about writing nonfiction is doing all the research, although I rarely call it research. “Detective work” is a much more accurate description for what I actually do.
The word “research” sounds a bit dry and boring and history is anything but that. For anyone with a curious mind, like me (and you, I suspect!), history is like going on a scavenger hunt through time, searching for clues and carefully piecing them together, like a jigsaw puzzle of real-life people and events.
Some people say they rarely read books about history because they prefer stories that engage their imagination. These folks clearly have no clue whatsoever how much imagination is required to study, write and read about history!
Anyone who thinks of history as a (yawn) dull and lifeless record of wars and battles, kings and queens, dates and facts, would be dead wrong.
The stories of our past are not neat and tidy. They are not black and white, or set in stone. They are actually more like a messy patchwork quilt. A madly coloured quilt with often clashing and wonky accounts of what happened, all stitched together by whoever was in power at the time.
And who has been in power for centuries on end? Humans, that’s who. And only certain humans, for that matter.
It was the educated people who wrote about history, people who lived in rich and powerful countries, people who looked a lot like this guy:
Needless to say, much of what we’ve been taught is only a teeny tiny sliver of the historical pie.
What I never knew when I was at school is that there are many gaps in history, periods when the page is totally blank and we have absolutely no idea what happened.
Other times, there are so many conflicing accounts of what happened that it’s hard to say what is true and what is fiction. This is where those detective powers come into play.
If you’ve ever watched a detective show on the telly or read a mystery novel, you’ll know that one’s powers of imagination can just as important as reason and logic.
We have to use creative thinking skills even with historical events that are extremely well documented. Why? Because most of the time, we weren’t there.
Reading about something in a book is not nearly the same as actually experiencing it. We have to take the facts and then do our best to imagine what it must have been like.
It’s not always easy to put ourselves in the shoes of someone else, especially someone who lived long ago…like a soldier dodging bullets as he runs through enemy gunfire, or a young Jewish girl, scribbling away in a diary while hiding from the Nazis.
Can you picture it in your mind, like this scene from a stage play about Anne Frank? We do this every time we read a book, whether it’s a book for pleasure or a history book at school or a nonfiction book like the ones I write.
By doing some research, you’ll find all sorts of little details that will make imagining long ago events and people much easier.
I really had to put my detective skills and my imagination to work while writing my latest book, which is all about the history of the world from a cat’s perspective.
The idea for this book came when I realized that humans tell history from a very limited, human point of view, which is not necessarily what actually happened. But cats have prowled the planet for thousands of years and have become keen observers of the human race, silently watching (and judging) us with their clear, unblinking eyes.
There’s a special relationship between cats and humans that stretches back for many, many centuries. Longer than humans and dogs, believe it or not. Who better to give an account of the history of the world?
I’ve discovered that telling a story from an unexpected perspective – like a cat – often reveals stuff that I might not have paid much attention to before.
So, your Writing Challenge is to try this for yourself. Choose one item in your home or school and write a short paragraph about it from the perspective of an animal. Any object, any animal. There’s no right or wrong way to do it, so give it a bash and see what you come up with!
Kimberlie Hamilton used to live in sunny California and now lives in misty Scotland with her family and three cats. She has written all sorts of things but especially loves writing nonfiction books for young people with curious minds.
Kimberlie has a Master’s in Screenwriting from UCLA and studied Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of Rebel Cats, Rebel Dogs, Scotland’s Animal Superstars, Generation Hope, Rebel Animals at Risk and A History of the World (According to Cats!), and her books have been translated into 22 languages.
She is passionate about travel, books and animals and aspires to have her own sanctuary someday for cats that need a loving forever home. kimberliehamilton.co.uk
A History of the World (According to Cats!)
by Kimberlie Hamilton (author)
Jocelyn Kao (illustrator)
Scholastic UK | 2023
Familiar flowers fill the shop windows wherever you look at this time of year.
Of course – it’s February and the run-up to St Valentine’s Day. But where do
these traditions actually come from? I was interested and decided to do a little
bit of time tunnelling!
There are at least three contenders for who the
original Valentine may have been (you may not guess, but Valentine was a very
common name in the past – there were loads of them!).
My favourite legend refers
to a priest called Valentine. When the Roman Emperor Claudius II outlawed
marriage for soldiers as he felt single men made better soldiers, this Valentine
defied the order and performed secret marriage ceremonies for young lovers
anyway.
For this, he was executed around 270 AD. The February timing of our
Saint Valentine’s celebration may refer back to the saint’s execution, but there
is every chance that it has its root in a pagan ritual called Lupercalia which
the Romans celebrated.
It was dedicated to Faunus, a god of agriculture and
fertility, and to Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome.
Part of the
festival was a ritual where young women put their names into an urn, and the
bachelors of the community picked a name out. For the coming year, these pairs
became couples, and many of these random combinations actually resulted in
marriage.
During the early centuries of Christianity, these practices were
(understandably) outlawed, but in the Middle Ages, a new idea took hold: it was
thought that birds began looking for a mate around Saint Valentine’s Day.
The
poet Geoffrey Chaucer 14th-century poem is the earlier record of this idea with
his poem “The Parliament of Fowls,” in which “Seynt Valentynes day” is the day
“whan every foul cometh ther to chese his make” .
The idea caught on. The
earliest Valentine’s note to be sent goes back to the aftermath of the Battle of
Agincourt when Charles, Duke of Orleans, wrote to his wife from captivity in
1415. His poem refers to her as ‘my very gentle Valentine’. Tragically, he never
saw her again.
William Shakespeare and John Donne both cemented Saint Valentine’s reputation as
the patron of romantic love. But it was the Victorians who really turbo-charged
the tradition – they went into romantic overdrive with ever more elaborate
Valentine’s cards and greetings.
These could be shop bought, commissioned or
best of all, home-made and were commonly decorated with love birds, hearts and
Cupid – pretty much the Valentine’s Day that we know today.
Writing Challenge: I thought it would be fun to create a Valentine’s poem to an
inanimate object that you love: a toy, a book, a favourite item of clothing.
Include descriptions and imagery of what the item means for you, and perhaps the
reaction it prompts for you – do you tremble whenever you go near?
Is it the
light and the life of every hour? The more exaggerated and over the top, the
more entertaining it will be! We at the Time Tunnellers would love to see your
work if you are willing to share it. Find us on social media @TimeTunnellers.
My children love Edith Nesbit’s books. I love them too! I remember reading them when I was younger, and now my children listen to them in the car on the way home from school.
You’ve probably heard of some of her books, even if you haven’t read them: The Railway Children is probably her most famous, but she also wrote Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, The Story of the Amulet, and The Enchanted Castle (as well as many, many others!)
At the time Edith was writing, over 100 years ago, she was just as famous as any best-selling children’s author today. Children awaited each new book eagerly–and with good reason.
Edith had a ferocious imagination, writing stories full of magic, adventure and drama, and she understood how children think: what they love, fear and desire.
Her depiction of sibling relationships is note-perfect, capturing the little jokes and quarrels that exist between brothers and sisters, as well as the fierce loyalty that can turn in an instant to bitter hostility, then back again in the next second!
You may be wondering why I am writing about Edith Nesbitt. Well, as it turns out she lived for a while not very far from where I live now – in Eltham in south-east London!
Her home was a place called Well Hall, an 18th century manor house which was built on the remains of a much earlier, medieval manor house of the same name.
Interestingly, there were two manor houses recorded in Eltham in 1100: East Horne and Well Hall. Neither manor is still standing (unfortunately) but their names remain.
Well Hall gives its name to Well Hall Road and Well Hall Pleasaunce – a sort of small park or garden – and East Horne manor lives on in the neighbourhood of Horn Park, which is in fact where I live!
As I said, the original medieval Well Hall manor was pulled down and rebuilt in the 18th century, but the barn that was built next door in the Tudor era remains, and is home to the Tudor Barn restaurant today.
Edith Nesbit lived in Well Hall from 1899 to around 1920. During this time she wrote many of her most famous novels, including the ‘Psammead Series’ (Five Children and It; The Phoenix and the Carpet; The Story of the Amulet), The Railway Children and The Enchanted Castle.
If you visit Well Hall Pleasaunce today (as I did) you’ll find some lovely wood carvings of the Psammead (the sand fairy from Five Children and It), the Phoenix (the magical fire bird from The Phoenix and the Carpet) and a dragon in honour of the many magical creatures Edith Nesbit wrote about.
I had a great time walking in Edith’s footsteps (you can see my outing in the video that goes with this blog post). It was wonderful to walk where she would have walked, and to think what she might have seen and smelled and heard when she lived there.
The place would have been a lot quieter, with no main road, much fewer shops, and the whole place consisting of a small village in the countryside rather than a busy London suburb.
Despite these differences, however, it was very moving to have that connection to someone who was so influential in children’s writing.
Later in the day I visited Railway Children Walk in nearby Grove Park. It’s not much – just a narrow footpath behind some houses, leading to a bridge over a railway line – but as I walked down I had the sensation of walking away from the bustle of London and into a quiet place all by itself.
It was as if I was walking back in time to that period when there were fewer cars and no planes, no mobile phones and no internet. Back, in fact, to the era of The Railway Children, when trains ran on steam and the two World Wars hadn’t happened yet.
It reminded me that history isn’t confined to the past: it’s all around us. Sometimes it’s hidden, and you have to go digging for it; but sometimes you’ll come across it quite suddenly and unexpectedly.
It’ll be there in a place name, a street sign, a plaque on a wall or a rise in the ground. If you don’t know what it is you’ll probably miss it – but if you go out in your local area with an idea of what to look for you’ll find the past rushing up to meet you.
With that in mind, here’s this week’s Writing Challenge. In fact it’s not so much a challenge as an adventure!
Your challenge is to find out about a person who lived in your local area a long time ago, and see if you can find anything of them left behind, and record it on the sheet. They don't have to be very famous, but it would be good to know if they did something important or helpful.
You might not find much. It might just be a street name; it might be a house where they lived; it might be a path they used to walk along. Whatever it is, see if you can find it, and either draw it or take a picture.
Then write a description of the place as it might have looked when that person was alive. If it was long enough ago it might have changed a lot – or it might not have changed at all! Either way, it’s fascinating to think about how the past relates to the present. Include the person in your scene if you can.
In
1905 the football legend Lily Parr was born. Some readers will be frowning;
they’ve never heard of Lily Parr, so how can she be a football legend?
Ah,
but that’s exactly why Lily’s story is so fascinating!
Lily
Parr was the fourth child of a hardworking family, living in the industrial
outskirts of the city of Liverpool. The gas-lit, smoggy streets running between
rows of back-to-back housing, were where this small girl decided she much
preferred a kick about with her brothers to household pastimes. The older boys
soon stopped laughing at little Lily when they saw the strength of her kick,
speed and skill.
Lily Parr’s school portrait
When
World War 1 began in 1914, Lily was nine years old. Britain needed every
available man to defend Europe from invasion by the Germans. Men and boys
signed up to join the army in their thousands, but it wasn’t enough, and soon
it was compulsory for young fit men to go away to fight.
The
normal pattern of life turned on its head.
With huge numbers of men at war, the women and girls now worked in the
factories making the ammunition needed by the army. They played football in
their breaks, and soon began playing matches against other factories.
Crowds
flocked to watch matches played for wartime charities, and the quality of the
ladies football game grew. With so many men at war, women’s football surged in
popularity with matches every weekend.
When
the war ended in 1918, the men began to take their factory jobs back from the
women, who were expected to return to their roles in the home. But ladies
football had become a very popular sport in its own right. Some of the teams
had legions of adoring fans.
By
1919, aged just 14, Lily Parr was nearly 6 foot tall, strong and fit. Her
football skills had not gone unnoticed. She was playing for a local ladies
team, when she was talent spotted by the best team in the country, Dick Kerr
Ladies, based at the factory of the same name. Offered a factory job, a family
to board with, and a chance to play for money, her concerned parents are forced
to agree. Lily loved football and this was her big chance.
In
Lily’s first season with Dick Kerr Ladies, she scored 43 goals. By 1920 her
skills were being noticed by a wider audience and she was considered a star.
Lindsay Galvin is the author of Darwin's Dragons, My Friend the Octopus and The Call of the Titanic. After working for over 20 years as a teacher, Lindsay is now a full-time writer. To find out more visit lindsaygalvin.com/
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!
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.
