WHAT does ‘Tempus Fugit’ mean?” Vera asked. “It means ‘Time flies’. It’s an old Latin motto,” Emily replied. The two young women were admiring an old sundial that stood in the large garden of Jesmond

You wouldn’t guess from the cover design—three songbirds silhouetted over swatches of picturesque Englishness—but Catherine Clarke’s A History of England in 25 Poems hits one of its sweet spots with a

Some readers may be aware of the Observer’s literary scoop last summer: Chloe Hadjimatheou’s exposé, that is, about The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. Published in 2018, this memoir tells a tale of homeles

“Welcome to the 19th century,” began Jeremy Harte, introducing the Folklore Society’s Legendary Weekend examining ‘Lying in Legend and Tradition’. Gathering at Carlisle’s Tullie House Museum over 6-7

NORMA sat on her parents’ sofa and sipped her tea. It was Saturday afternoon, one of her favourite times of the week. She’d finished work at the newsagents at lunchtime and now, she had a relaxing aft

Do not speak ill of the dead: so runs a familiar injunction, often recalled when it is already too late, and ill has been spoken. And sometimes the dead themselves set a terrible example. Consider the