Mrs Beeton on decorum at the dinner-table

Isabella Beeton is best known today for The Book of Household Management first published in 1861.

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This is an ex-tiger!

Monty Python’s 1969 “Dead Parrot Sketch” is a classic, but it has tragic overtones.

Pause for thought: Edward Abbey

A crisis faces the world’s ancient forests

No apology for returning to an issue that should cause an international outcry.

End of the line

The London Necropolis Railway opened in November 1854 to carry deceased persons to a newly opened cemetery outside the city.

Magnolia tree

For such a beautiful tree, there are surprisingly few poems about magnolias.

Indian snake charmers lose their sway

The ancient art of snake charming is disappearing.