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  • Twelve Days of Christmas: Six Geese a-Laying

    By Professor Anne Lawrence-Mathers As this is the History blog, today presents an opportunity to celebrate the Six Great Geese of History (as chosen by us).  They will be presented – obviously – in chronological order. First up is Aesop’s… Continue reading

    Twelve Days of Christmas: Six Geese a-Laying
  • Twelve Days of Christmas: Five Gold Rings

    By Dr Heike Schmidt Five Rings of Gold – But Where Did It Come From? When the Gold Coast gained independence from Britain in 1957 the anti-colonial nationalists proudly renamed the country Ghana. Their first head of stead, Kwame Nkrumah,… Continue reading

    Twelve Days of Christmas: Five Gold Rings
  • Twelve Days of Christmas: Four Calling Birds

    By Dr James P. Bowen In 2018, Dr James P. Bowen of Leeds Trinity University was awarded the Poultry Club of Great Britain Research Fellowship at the University of Reading’s Museum of English Rural Life. ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’… Continue reading

    Twelve Days of Christmas: Four Calling Birds
  • Twelve Days of Christmas: Three French Hens

    By Professor Joel Felix To a French historian the three French hens of the 12 Days of Christmas inevitably recalls the story of King Henri IV and the poule au pot (chicken in the pot) which was popularized by Voltaire… Continue reading

    Twelve Days of Christmas: Three French Hens
  • Twelve Days of Christmas: Two Turtle Doves – Boiled!

    By Professor David Stack Charles Darwin was not a romantic. The brutally pragmatic ‘Pros and Cons list’ he wrote before deciding upon marriage to his cousin Emma Wedgwood proves that. We can safely assume that if the nineteenth century’s greatest… Continue reading

    Twelve Days of Christmas: Two Turtle Doves – Boiled!