“Flowers seem to be intended for the solace of humanity”, wrote John Ruskin: “children love them; tender, cultivated people love them as they grow”. ‘Treasury of Summer’ | Britannia and Eve | 1 July 1950 Gardening can prove a useful and enjoyable distraction during challenging times. In June 1940, during the midst of the Second World War, the beauty of local gardens inspired mixed emotions. The spring of 1940 and the early summer have been far more beautiful than usual, …
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‘Give us also the right to our existence’ At Bow Street in London on 16 November 1928, Miss Radclyffe Hall’s novel, ‘The Well of Loneliness’, found itself in the dock on a charge of obscenity. The powers-that-be had decided that they did not like the novel’s ‘unnatural offences’ – hence the decision to prosecute. The magistrate eventually decided that the book was obscene and ordered that it be destroyed. Here is a newspaper story that reports on this famous literary …