Ramblings from a Kentish Maid – T. Thurai’s blog

Tradition: fact or fiction?

May 15th 2012

According to L.P.Hartley’s famous quote: “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” But, if the past is history, what is tradition? Are they one and the same – or two separate entities? A visit to Rochester’s Sweeps’ Festival got T. Thurai thinking.

Publish and be ...?

April 10th 2012

If the London Book Fair had a spiritual representative, who would it be? Elephant-headed Ganesha, the Hindu deity venerated as a remover of obstacles? Or St Jude, patron saint of lost causes? As the Fair prepares to open its doors for the 41st year, T. Thurai considers a tricky question of metaphysics – and the current state of the publishing industry.

Chilham church: a historical treasure trail

March 27th 2012

Forget Dan Brown’s Da Vinci code. If a trail of weird connections appeals to you, then you only have to go as far as your local church. For instance, what links a castle to the Elizabethan poet John Donne, the architect Inigo Jones and architect and art collector, Sir John Soane? The answer is to be found in Chilham church.

The seeds of conflict: how history can help our understanding

March 13th 2012

Further debate about Sri Lanka will be generated by a new television documentary this week which will focus on the closing stages of the civil war. But to understand how it all began, historians must look to a neglected period of the 1950s.

Do Manners Matter?

February 28th 2012

Is there still a place for good manners in our stressed-out, time-starved age? Or are they a just relic of the past? T. Thurai puts her thinking cap on.

The Matchmaker’s Code

February 14th 2012

With gift shops awash with Valentine cards and the option of text, email, telephone and old-fashioned love letters, we are spoilt for choice when it comes to communicating our affection. But how did people relay their feelings in a previous age when the level of literacy was much lower and the means of communication limited to letters or word of mouth? One clever cook-maid had a novel solution.

Leeds Castle: the tragic romance of a medieval duchess

January 31st 2012

Leeds Castle has been linked with a number of royal love-affairs, most notably that of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. But there is another tale – less well-known, but equally poignant. Read on to find out more.

Slugging it out in the garden

January 17th 2012

Driven to distraction, T. Thurai is plotting revenge. But who – or what – has driven her to consider desperate measures?

The case of the baker's missing breeches

January 3rd 2012

When a Folkestone baker fell foul of a confidence trickster it was not so much a case of the wrong trousers as the missing ones! But what really happened … and who was telling the truth?

Trumped by a late Christmas card!

December 15th 2011

Seasonal brinkmanship and a printer possessed! Last-minute Christmas cards have a way of catching you out – sometimes with disastrous consequences.