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From the Blog

MP Nancy Astor gets her own statue. Who’s next?

I’m on the Nancy Astor Express. We’re whizzing west out of Paddington

28 November, 2019
Looking for Emily Williamson, RSPB founder

Victorian campaigner Emily Williamson was so incensed by the millinery trade’s use

6 November, 2019
The strange ritual of the Servants’ Christmas Ball

Uneasy mingling: the Servants’ Ball at ITV’s Downton Abbey, where Lady Grantham

29 December, 2018

News & Events

Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 4
Hear all about Etta Lemon, the ‘Margaret Thatcher’ of the birding world. How did this remarkable character hone her campaigning skills, and why was she stabbed in the back by the men who took over the RSPB?

Secrets of the National Trust with Alan Titchmarsh (Channel 5)
Erddig Hall in North Wales was once home to the Yorkes ⁠— a family famously kind to their servants. Or were they? I uncovered the story of ‘thief cook’ Ellen Penketh, jailed in 1907 for allegedly stealing £500 from her insecure mistress Louisa Yorke.

Radio Gorgeous interview with Josephine Pembroke, talking twitchers (why are hardcore birders almost always men?), the mysterious workings of the RSPB (why wouldn’t they let me revisit their archives?) and Mrs Pankhurst’s penchant for fashion (why so many feathered hats?).

Contact Tessa Boase

FIND TESSA ONLINE

From the Blog

MP Nancy Astor gets her own statue. Who’s next?

Looking for Emily Williamson, RSPB founder

The strange ritual of the Servants’ Christmas Ball

News & Events