Band Aid is biggest Christmas hit

Band Aid's 2004 version of Do They Know It's Christmas? is the decade's best-selling seasonal song in the UK, according to new figures.

The hit beat Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) by rock band The Darkness into second place, the Official UK Charts Company has said.

The Pogues' 1987 hit Fairytale of New York at number three is the highest-placed song recorded before 2000.

For more info:
BBC News - Band Aid song is decade's biggest Christmas hit

Lord of Misrule Christmas Guide

December 25th (January 6th for Orthodox Christians)

Welcome, welcome, welcome and a Merry Christmas to you all.

My name is Christopher Christmas and I am the Lord of Misrule (see my page: Lord of Misrule), the man who ensures that there is merriment and happiness on Christmas Day throughout the UK. Pour yourself a mug of O’Holic’s Triple Thick But Never Sick Hot Chocolate and pull up a chair and I will tell you everything you need to know about Christmas and how it is celebrated here on these fertile islands of ours.

I shall begin at the beginning, at the very dawn of time, when the earth started to spin and our great, great, great, great . . . grandfathers first looked up at the sky and saw the sun burning brightly above them giving out its generous warmth and bringing the dark earth to life.


DRUIDS / ROMANO-GREEKS / NORDICS / HEBREWS
Our great-whatever-grandfathers, you see, realised soon enough that the earth had seasons and that the changing of these seasons was in some way linked to the movement of the sun. In the summer, the sun stayed high in the sky for many hours, but come the winter it rose on one horizon and fell on the other with a rapidity of speed which was at first both frightening and worrying. Would the sun ever come back again and would the days ever get longer? Our friends up in the Nordic countries even worshipped the sun and believed it to be a great wheel in the sky which gently changed the seasons as it spun.

This puzzle, about the variable length of days, was resolved quickly enough when the most ancient of star gazers lay upon their backs to look upon the planets and realised that the heavens moved in a fairly regular pattern and that on the same day each year, the 21st December in the modern calendar but the 25th December in the ancient Roman astronomical calendar, the days stopped getting shorter and started to grow longer again. This was the time of the winter solstice (the time when the sun stands still) and it quickly became a date that was observed with some reverence and no small amount of celebration.

My dear ancient Romano-Greek cousins, ever ones for a good party, started celebrating on the 17th December with the festival of Saturnalia and did not stop raving for a full seven days. In Roman mythology, Saturn was the ancient god of agriculture – closely identified with the Greek god Cronus. It was believed that Saturn presided over a Golden Age – a time of perfect peace and happiness – and that to commemorate this Golden Age, festivals should take place each year after the final harvest. Such happy times: men dressing up as women, masters dressing up as servants, houses decked with evergreens, candles - always a sign of hope and life - warmly lit, brightly coloured processions filling the towns, and presents being willingly exchanged.

Here in the UK, in the years before Christianity arrived on these shores, the Celtic Druid priests observed the winter solstice by cutting the parasitic plant mistletoe from the oak trees and blessing it as being a symbol of rebirth and a sign that the winter months were starting to turn their faces towards the dawning of a new year.

And in Israel, the Jewish people marked the mid-winter with the eight-day Hebrew festival of Hanukkah, lighting a new candle each day (again as a symbol of life and hope), exchanging gifts, and remembering the year that had just finished.

I guess you can begin to see already that December has always been a pretty important month, though historically up until now no one has yet called it Christmas. For Christmas, (the mass celebrating the birth of Christ) we need a birth, and that’s where the baby Jesus comes in.


NATIVITY
The sketchy account of the birth of Jesus (no one actually gives or knows a precise date!) is contained in two Gospels as part of the Bible’s New Testament: one written by Matthew and the other written by Luke. No two people see or report things in exactly the same way, and this is true of Matthew and Luke who give different accounts of Jesus’ birth, but from these accounts we’re able to piece together the story of the ‘nativity’: a word which simply means birth and which can apply to any birth, though which is most specifically associated with the birth of Jesus these days.

So, what do Matthew and Luke have to say? Well, they both agree that Jesus was born to a woman called Mary who was engaged at the time to a carpenter by the name of Joseph, and, that at the time of the birth, Mary was still a virgin. Big question, how does a woman who is a virgin (not had sexual intercourse) actually become pregnant? Luke knows: he says that Mary was visited by an angel of the Lord who told her that she was to carry God’s son in her womb. Matthew in part corroborates this with the assertion that Joseph too was visited by an angel and persuaded to marry Mary in the hope of protecting her during her pregnancy.

Mary and Joseph were from Nazareth, but travelled to Bethlehem near Jerusalem in Judea in order to register for the Census that had been ordered by the Roman Emperor, Augustus. That little sleepy town of Bethlehem was heaving with registrants when Joseph and Mary arrived and in spite of Mary’s heavily pregnant condition, they could not find a place to stay. Travelling from inn to inn searching for a bed, they eventually met an innkeeper who, because his inn was full, offered his stable as a place for Mary and Joseph to sleep for the night.

And whilst they were there, Mary went into labour and the baby Jesus was born.

Now this event, heralded by angels, was startling and wonderful. Out in the fields, an angel visited some shepherds and told them:

"Fear not, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy. For there is born to you this day in the city of David, a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth, lying in a manger."

And so the shepherds hurried off to find the baby Jesus and to honour his historic birth.

There were also Three Wise Men (Caspar, Balthazar and Melchoir) who followed a bright star in the east that hung over Bethlehem and they too came to pay homage to Jesus and marked his birth with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

And so, Jesus Christ was born, but many years passed before the first Christmas was celebrated.


THE FIRST CHRISTMAS
It took some time for the notion of Christianity to spread across the world. In fact, it wasn't until the year 238 that the word "Christian" was even used for the first time - by the missionary Paul (later St Paul) when travelling in Antioch, in Syria.

As I mentioned before, the Gospels did not set out the date of Jesus’ birth (most likely to have been between 20 and 29 September) and it was not until the year 366 A.D. that the then Pope, Julius the First, hit upon the idea of decreeing that the 25th December (using the ancient Roman astronomical calendar to determine the winter solstice) was to be the date on which Jesus’ birth would be celebrated. This was quite a cunning plan: a ruse to Christianise the existing Pagan solstice celebrations by giving them a Christian focus. By the year 529, the 25th December had become a formal holiday, and by 567 the 12 days from Christmas Day to Epiphany (6th January) were all public holidays . . . a tradition sadly lost to us poor hard-working souls today! Epiphany comes from a Greek word meaning 'to show' and, depending on the church, marks the day when Jesus was baptised or alternatively the day on which the Three Wise Men arrived in Bethlehem to bestow gifts upon the infant child. Right up until the 1800s, Epiphany was as much a celebration in its own right as Christmas Day - hence the long holiday!


TRADITIONS
So, thanks to the clever mind of Pope Julius the First, Christmas became an established Christian holy day, but in placing it so close to the existing solstice festivals, Christmas quickly became a mash of different traditions: Christian, Pagan, Hebrew, Greek, and Nordic to name but a few. The established church wanted Jesus’ birth to be celebrated each year by a simple mass, but the old traditions of feasting and merry-making refused to die out. One of the Four founding Fathers of the Greek Church went so far as to warn, in 389, against 'feasting in excess, dancing and crowning the doors'.

MEDIEVAL TRADITIONS
During the Medieval period (approximately 400 to 1400), Christmas was a real out and out party time with only very limited religious observance. The old Pagan attitudes to the winter solstice long outlived Julius’ initial decree, as the Britons - having picked up many Pagan ideas form the Romans - set about having bawdy parties and decking their houses in greenery, much in the same way as the ancient Romano-Greeks had done in celebrating the festival of Saturnalia.

Again, the Church made moves to bring these Pagan attitudes within their area of influence: mistletoe was banned and holly, as a representation of the crown of thorns said to have been worn by Jesus when he was crucified, was offered as a replacement evergreen instead. Even carols, traditionally songs sung by Pagans celebrating the summer solstice and the importance of the early autumn harvest, were taken up by the church and re-written to praise the birth of Jesus Christ.

It was during this period that the tradition of the Nativity and the displaying a crib started, when, in 1223, St Francis set up a representation of the Nativity of Jesus outside a church in the small town of Greccio in Italy. Crib making flourished in Europe long before it became popular in the UK, suggesting that the British observance of Christmas was less Christian and more Pagan in nature than it was on the European mainland.

From the middle of the 17th century, Christian Puritans (people who wanted to rid the Church of unscriptural ideas and celebrations and to revert to a 'pure' Christian creed) worked hard to suppress the excesses of Christmas celebrations in both Europe and America. As Christ’s birth date was unknown from the Gospels and because Christmas had become too entwined with the old Pagan ways and the excesses of the Saturnalia celebrations, the Puritans decided to ban all Christmas activities including the decorating of houses, partying and even cooking or eating mince pies.

VICTORIAN TRADITIONS
Out with the Puritans and enter the Victorians - named after the reigning Queen of the time, Victoria (1837 to 1901) - who took Christmas to their hearts in a big way, mainly thanks to Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, being such an enthusiast for Christmas and for having such influence over people in the country. In 1840, Albert had the first Christmas tree in England erected at his home in Brighton. What Albert did, others aped and soon everyone wanted to have a Christmas tree of their own.

Not only did the Victorians have Albert, they also had Dickens, Charles Dickens - author extraordinaire. In 1843, Dickens sat down and wrote the apocryphal story of A Christmas Carol: capturing the imagination of people on both sides of the Atlantic with its moralistic tale of salvation, redemption and philanthropy. Suddenly, Christmas was all right again and something which could be celebrated after the Puritanical years without any sense of guilt or shame.

In many ways, it is the Victorians who moulded Christmas into the shape and form that we recognise it as today: the fir trees, the evergreens, the carol singing, the present giving, and the exchanging of Christmas cards - an idea borrowed from Valentines’ Day and reworked for the Christmas market when you could send someone love and festive wishes without having to sentimentalise them as a lover.

Whilst many of the traditions revived by the Victorians date back to Medieval Britain, the modern day Christmas is heavily influenced by the rest of Europe and by America. Having Christmas trees in the home is an idea borrowed from Germany. Rudolph comes from the pen of an advertising exec in the USA (see page: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer). Santa Claus - who is real, of course - is a mix of Turkish Bishop, Nordic legend, American poem, and Coca-Cola advert (see Santa Claus - His Story).


ADVENT
Advent is the period of celebration marking the birth of Jesus Christ. It starts each year on the Sunday closest to 30th November and lasts until Christmas Eve. Many children have Advent Calendars and these usually run from 1st to 24th December (though some go to 25th December). Traditionally, Advent Calendars are like posters with little doors cut into them. Each day, you open a numbered door and behind it you find a new picture. Originally, Advent Calendars depicted religious icons, but over the years the pictures have become more commercial and many companies now produce tacky Advent Calendars which offer a small gift (a chocolate, for example) behind each door.

The word Advent comes from Latin ‘adventus’ meaning ‘coming’ and was originally a period of penitence when followers were expected to fast. This tradition has long since died out.

Advent wreaths - their circular shape reminding us of the perfection and eternity of God - are popular, especially in churches, and usually are made from evergreen firs (Pagan influence again) and contain four candles. One candle is supposed to be lit each Sunday during Advent. The four candles represent hope, peace, joy and love.


CHRISTMAS TODAY IN THE UK
Christmas is the Christian Festival most celebrated by non-believers - though most of those are celebrating the Pagan relics and modern day factors far more than they are celebrating the birth of Christ: in many ways Christmas is being reclaimed as a celebration of the winter solstice that happens to coincide with the Church’s arbitrary decision to nominate 25th December as Jesus Christ’s birthday. Most people take part in the exchanging of gifts, the decorating of their homes, the sending of cards, the singing of carols, and the thrill of being visited by Father Christmas as a homage to their love of life: the religious element is increasingly regarded as non-focal in such a secular society.

Many people are unhappy that Christmas has become so commercial and crass; angry that shops start selling Christmas goods in late August or early September. But with carols, trees, office parties, television programmes, pop songs, visits to Santa in retail outlets, and much, much more, Christmas is fundamentally just a time to forget about the worries of life and to party for hours with family and friends.

I wish you all, a very Merry Christmas - however you might care to celebrate it.

Your faithful friend

Christopher Christmas - The Lord of Misrule

The Little Match-Seller - Andersen

The Little Match-Seller
by Hans Christian Andersen

It was terribly cold and nearly dark on the last evening of the old year, and the snow was falling fast. In the cold and the darkness, a poor little girl, with bare head and naked feet, roamed through the streets. It is true she had on a pair of slippers when she left home, but they were not of much use. They were very large, so large, indeed, that they had belonged to her mother, and the poor little creature had lost them in running across the street to avoid two carriages that were rolling along at a terrible rate. One of the slippers she could not find, and a boy seized upon the other and ran away with it, saying that he could use it as a cradle, when he had children of his own. So, the little girl went on with her little naked feet, which were quite red and blue with the cold. In an old apron, she carried a number of matches, and had a bundle of them in her hands. No one had bought anything of her the whole day, nor had anyone given her even a penny. Shivering with cold and hunger, she crept along; poor little child, she looked the picture of misery. The snowflakes fell on her long, fair hair, which hung in curls on her shoulders, but she regarded them not.

Lights were shining from every window, and .... to read the rest of the story, click here.

Christmas Carol manuscript by Dickens on display

"A handwritten manuscript of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol has gone on display, revealing just how rushed he was when he wrote it.

The English author's work has gone on display at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York.

Dickens wrote the classic story in a six-week flurry of activity, beginning in October 1843 and ending in time for Christmas publication. His speed is evident."

Christmas Carol manuscript by Dickens on display

St Paul's Cathedral - London

St Paul's Cathedral - London

Climb the dome and don't look down!

Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) rests in a tomb in St Paul's Cathedral and near it is a simple tablet inscribed in Latin with the words: Si monumentum requiris, circumspice - If you seek his monument, look about you.

Wren is the architect who built St Paul's as we see it today. Completed in 1710, replacing an earlier building that was destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666, St Paul's stands out as Wren's finest architectural work - an imposing grand building in the heart of the City of London.

For many people in the UK, St Paul's stands as a testament to all that is British: our history, our independence, our pageantry, our willingness to accept others, and our sense of nationhood. As a structure that survived the very worst ravages of the blitz, while many of the buildings around it were destroyed, St Paul's has an affectionate place in the hearts of many of the UK's citizens, who see it more as a national monument than an ecclesiastical building. It may be a beautiful and bold structure, it may be an architectural masterpiece, it may be one of the UK's most important religious sites, but for many, its innate charm lies in its symbolism for survival.

Along with Westminster Abbey (which sits side by side with the Houses of Parliament a couple of kilometres down the River Thames), St Paul's is a building of national focus. Its great dome, rising to a height of 108.7 m, witnessed Nelson's funeral in 1806, Wellington's funeral in 1853, Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, Churchill's funeral in 1965, and the wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981.

As a building of religious significance, it is a must on anybody's travel itinerary. Built in the Gothic style with features based on classical Greek forms prevalent at the time in the Italian Renaissance, its main entrance is flanked by two Baroque towers. Inside, the immense proportions of the building dwarf visitors. They wander in and out of the pews, few really stopping to take in all the clues to British life that surround them: A roll of honour detailing the 33,000 members of the Merchant Navy who lost their lives serving in the Second World War. A monument to the Duke of Wellington - 20 years of work and still incomplete. A tribute to Captain Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912), who died on an ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. A memorial to Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) whose famous last words, as he lay dying on the deck of his ship at the end of the Battle of Trafalgar, were "Kiss me, Hardy". The huge organ once played by both Handel and Mendelssohn. The high alter, made from a four ton slab of Italian marble and topped with a 3 metre high cross. The American Memorial Chapel founded as a British tribute to the 28,000 Americans based in Britain who lost their lives in the Second World War. The Dean's Aisle with fragments from the Holy Land including a carved piece of marble from Herod's Temple. Here, if you stop to look, you can find so much that is the UK.

However, the two greatest parts of St Paul's are high above you and they are two things which every visitor to London should seek out: the dome and the Whispering Gallery.

The vast area under the dome is decorated to look like a compass, pointing to the corners of the earth. From here, when the dome was being built, Wren was hauled up in a basket two or three times a week to see how work was progressing. The arches which support the dome are topped by an area known as the Whispering Gallery, a narrow circular strip running 84 metres around the bottom rim of the dome. It is called the Whispering Gallery because a whisper against the circular wall can be heard on the opposite side, some 42 metres away! The only great difficulty in hearing a whisper today is that the Gallery is usually full of tourists all trying to whisper at the same time, so you invariably end up listening to someone else's proclamation of love! But if you wait for a while until the Gallery is quiet, you really can hear a whisper spoken against the wall on the opposite side of the rim. Incredible. From the Gallery, you also get a unique view of the inside of St Paul's as you tower above the marbled setting below. You also get a great view of the fresco paintings. One last thing about the Gallery, you are always closely watched by nervous curators. Why are they nervous? Because, sadly, over the years, the Whispering Gallery has been a place for would-be suicides, desperate people hoping to make one last dramatic gesture. Do not lean out too far!

Above the Whispering Gallery you start to climb to one of London's best kept tourist secrets - the galleries on the roof of the dome. This is not a trek for the unfit. As you climb the steps, you hear others losing breath and wishing that they had not started the journey at all. At the first gallery, I met a woman in tears of fear - this is not a place for anyone with acrophobia. But if you climb to the very top of the dome, to the part where the stone steps stop and the "ladders" can only reach, then you will be treated to a truly spectacular view of London. This is the one thing that you really must see - and do not forget to bring your camera and, if you have them, a pair of binoculars. On a clear day, the view is stunning. Beneath you so many of the landmarks that make the great city so famous: the Tower of London, the River Thames, the Bank of England (known as the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street), The City (which is the financial centre of the UK and Europe), the Houses of Parliament, the Nat West Tower, Lloyds of London, and the suburbs stretching out over the horizon. There is no finer view in all of London.

When you have feasted your eyes on London and taken lots of pictures to show your family back home, then the last part of the Cathedral that you must visit is the Crypt, a quiet sombre area that many people miss. If the main part of St Paul's is the heart and body of the UK, then the Crypt really is its innermost soul. People wander around the tombs in near silence, whispering names to each other as they read the inscriptions of the great and the good, at rest at last. Take time to amble round the Crypt (which is not in the least unnerving as some might imagine it to be) and you will learn a great deal about the people who forged the UK and about how the people of the UK today understand their own national psyche.

Look for Wren's tomb and decide for yourself how fitting are the words: Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.

Sightseeing details

The Cathedral is open Monday to Saturday from 0830, with last admission at 1600. Allow 2 to 3 hours for your visit. The Cathedral Shop and the Crypt Cafe are open from 0900 to 1700 and from 1030 to 1700 on Sundays. Special services or events may close all or part of the Cathedral sometimes at short notice.

Admission charges

See the St Paul's website for details.

* Information believed to be correct at time of publishing.

London Christmas Links

In London this Xmas and looking for things to do and see that will put a festive spring (or should that be a "festive winter"?) in your step?

Then try some of these:

The Lord of Misrule's Christmas Guide
http://www.gouk.com/christmas/index.htm



For ideas with kids:
http://www.dayoutwiththekids.co.uk/

http://www.hydeparkwinterwonderland.com/

http://www.visitlondon.com/people/family/

http://www.visitbritain.co.uk/things-to-see-and-do/things-to-do-for-people-like-me/family-ideas/index.aspx

http://www.childfriendly.co.uk/family-days-out

http://www.letsgowiththechildren.co.uk/


Christmas Lights
Oxford Street:
http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/whatson/oxford-street-christmas-lights-feature-403.html

Regent Street:
http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/whatson/regent-street-christmas-lights-feature-397.html



Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square
http://www.london.gov.uk/trafalgarsquare/events/xmas.jsp


Pantomimes
http://www.bigpantoguide.co.uk/london.php



Visiting Santa
Harrods:
http://www.harrods.com/HarrodsStore/GlobalPages/EventArticle.aspx?Id=41921b87-8acc-48c3-a5d5-ea6e7e9497ac

Selfridges:
http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/whatson/santas-grotto-at-selfridges-article-7459.html


Hamleys:
http://www.hamleys.com/Regent_Street_Contact_Details_+_Hamleys_Toys/M178_CONTACT_REGENT_STREET,default,pg.html


Ice Skating
Somerset House:
http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/ice_rink/

Hampton Court:
http://www.hamptoncourticerink.com/index.aspx

Tower of London:
http://www.toweroflondonicerink.com/index.aspx



Free copy of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol
http://www.gouk.com/christmas/books_and_films/A_Christmas_Carol_Dickens.htm


Christmas Store
http://astore.amazon.co.uk/christmasstore-21

Bath Christmas Market 2009

Countdown to the Bath Christmas Market 2009 beings

Organisers of the Bath Christmas Market, Bath Tourism Plus, have begun the final count down to the festive event. With just over a week to go the Bath Christmas Market will start at 10.00am on Thursday 26th November and continuing through to Sunday 6th December.

Offering the perfect Christmas shopping experience, the event will feature 123 festively-dressed chalets selling unique, handmade and locally sourced products from food items and hampers, to toys, decorations, clothing and home ware.

With more entertainment this year, the Christmas Market will be better than ever for families. A centre of attention for children will be the Victorian Carousel on Stall Street and a whole range of fun characters will mingle with the crowds. Making a special appearance will be a Snow Queen on stilts, balloon modelling elves, a reindeer, a robin and a snowman, to name just a few!

Supplying a festive soundtrack will be a host of musical and dramatic entertainers performing in the three entertainment areas (under the arch at Abbey Green, at the Swallow Street end of York Street and outside the front of Bath Abbey). Sing along to carols with Trinity Primary School and Writhlington School and enjoy a variety of festive musical performances from acts including Grenville Jones, Jez Broun and Steve Robinson.

While exploring the superb range of gifts and products on sale shoppers can warm up with a winter treat at one of the event's six catering chalets. The 2009 market will see new catering companies providing delicious British food such as gourmet burgers, traditional sausage cobs and mince pies, and warming mulled wine.

Bath Tourism Plus is looking forward to the start of the Christmas Market. Events Manager, Victoria Spriggs says: “The planning has been very smooth and we’re really looking forward to getting out on the market and sharing the event with everyone. We are also pleased to be offering something new for this year. There will be a number of first-time traders giving shoppers even more choice and the increased number of performers will provide a festive atmosphere and keep visitors entertained”.

Robin Bischert, Chief Executive of Bath Tourism Plus says: “Each year, the market attracts around 225,000 people, which really gives the city a boost at this important time of year. The event is always much anticipated, and Bath Tourism Plus is pleased to see that a year's hard work organising and promoting the event is once again culminating in another successful event, for the benefit of a huge number of people - visitors, the local community, the city centre retail sector and the tourist industry in Bath and the surrounding area”.

The city is no doubt going to be a busy place on 26th November as well as throughout the duration of the market which finishes on the 6th December so don’t forget to Park and Ride (the service has been especially extended), or use public transport if possible.

For opening times and further details of Bath Christmas Market, see the official website www.bathchristmasmarket.co.uk, call 0906 711200 (50/min), or call into the Tourist Information Centre, Abbey Churchyard.

A Christmas Carol - Dickens

Written by Charles Dickens in 1843, A Christmas Carol is the greatest English Christmas story. It tells the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, an old and doomed miser who is saved from damnation by the intervention of his long dead partner's spirit and by three ghosts which represent Scrooge's past, present and future. Seeing the folly of his ways, Scrooge is changed man - embracing Christmas with an open and willing heart.

Dickens' Preface:

"I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.
Their faithful Friend and Servant, C.D.

December, 1843"


A Christmas Carol - Audio Book
If you would like a free audio book of A Christmas Carol, right click here and save the file to your desktop. (120 mb)

This will download a zip file that contains the audio book in 5 chapters as MP3 files. These files should be playable on any MP3 player.

To read the full text of A Christmas Carol electronically you have several format choices:

Word - File size 187 kb
Please note that you can also right click the link with your mouse and choose "Save Target As" to save to your own PC

PDF - File size 155 kb
Please note that you can also right click the link with your mouse and choose "Save Target As" to save to your own PC

HTML - File size 176 kb
Please note that you can also right click the link with your mouse and choose "Save Target As" to save to your own PC


To buy the printed book, click here.

Unlocking the mysteries of speech

Unlocking the mysteries of speech


"Animals may use sounds to communicate
but talking is uniquely human.
Yet despite decades of research scientists
still haven't unlocked the secrets of speech.
So why do we talk?"


Click here for the full story of unlocking the mysteries of speech

Changing Rituals

Friendship sticks a steak knife into smug soirees | India Knight - Times Online


Are dinner parties being consigned to history?

Changing UK?

Picture Gallery Pop-Up

Picture Gallery of Optical Illusions


Well, the title says it all .... but not a single one of someone holding the Eiffel Tower?

Nicolas Cage to switch on Bath’s Christmas lights

Bath has invited one of its most famous residents, film star Nicolas Cage, to switch on the city’s brand new Christmas lights on 26th November.

The switch on, which is being sponsored by Boots UK and Southgate, will take place at 6.30pm when Nicolas Cage joins the stage on Milsom Street. Mr Cage who is “excited and privileged” to be switching on the lights has said that he “loved Bath and thought it a beautiful city”. This year Bath will have a brand new set of Christmas lights provided by a company who have illuminated cities from Paris to New York.

The annual tradition of the Christmas Lights switch on marks the start of the Bath Christmas Market and late night shopping in Bath and will take place on Milsom Street. The event will kick off at 4:30pm with local musicians and bands including the Bath Chorus and a group of performing arts students from Bath College who will be singing a collection of Christmas pop songs to get everybody in festive mood! At 6:00pm Heart FM DJ Toby Anstis will be on stage to entertain the crowds before Nicolas Cage makes his appearance to switch on the Christmas lights.

Bath will be buzzing on 26th November with plenty happening across the city after the switch on event has taken place. Stewards from the City of Bath College will be on hand to help direct visitors to the Christmas Market, shops and other facilities.

The Bath Christmas Market will be set in the stunning location between Bath Abbey and the Roman Baths and will feature over 100 traditional wooden chalets selling everything imaginable for the perfect shopping experience - local and unique crafts, jewellery, clothes, accessories and decorations. There will also be a good choice of warming food and drink with gourmet burgers, sausage cobs and festive favourites such as mince pies and mulled wine.

The evening will also see the start of late night shopping in Bath. With such a high percentage of independent and boutique shops in Bath, the city is the perfect place to find a special present. And with all the usual high street stores there is plenty for shoppers to explore. The much-awaited first phase of Southgate will be opening its doors to the public on 4th November 2009 and will be open late to shoppers on 26th November. New retail outlets to open include Boots, H&M, New Look and Quiksilver.

Lynne Blackmore, Store Manager, Boots Southgate, says, “Boots UK is always looking for opportunities to expand its customer offering and the new Boots store in the Southgate Centre will provide a much bigger and better offering for the local population. Relocating our store into the new Southgate Centre is an extremely exciting time for us, as it will offer our customers a fantastic shopping experience, along with an extended range of products and services. We are delighted to be open in time for Christmas trading and are very much looking forward to partnering with the Southgate Centre in sponsoring the switching on of the Christmas lights in Bath this year.”

Andrew Cooper, City Centre Manager commented, “The switch on night this year marks the start of Christmas in Bath. The culmination of a new and exciting switch-on event in Milsom Street, the festive Christmas Market and Southgate’s opening will lead to a real buzz across the whole city for both residents and visitors alike.” He added, “This new impetus of activity on switch-night would not have been possible without the financial contributions of Boots, Southgate, Bath Chronicle, Future Bath Plus, Bath and North East Somerset Council and Heart FM.”

Councillor Terry Gazzard, the Council’s Cabinet Member for Tourism, Leisure & Culture (Conservative, Abbey) said, "Bath and North East Somerset Council is supporting a range of activities in the run up to Christmas which will increase visitor numbers and provide a valuable boost to the local economy in this tough economic climate. The new Christmas lights will benefit the whole of the community, making the area a vibrant place to live, work and visit."

The city is no doubt going to be a busy place on 26th November as well as throughout the duration of the Christmas Market which finishes on 6th December - so don’t forget to Park and Ride (the service has been especially extended), or use public transport if possible.

For further information about the Christmas lights switch on, the Bath Christmas Market and shopping in Bath visit the official tourism website for full details: www.visitbath.co.uk.