Piers Mucklejohn

3 weeks ago | earlymodernscribbling.com | Piers Mucklejohn

Have you ever prigged a prauncer to a bowsing ken at darkemans? Or gathered some cassan and yannam for a hearty meal, but your bufe filched the pek while your glasyers were averted? Perhaps you’ve opened your boung to purchase a togman, only to towre it has been nypped and all your lowre is gone? The good news, if these questions read like gibberish to you, is that you’re not having a stroke.

2 months ago | earlymodernscribbling.com | Piers Mucklejohn

2023 marked 400 years since a small group of actors and publishers produced Shakespeare’s “First Folio”, a collection of 36 plays. Without it, 18 may have been lost forever. Every collection which holds a copy jumped at the opportunity to exhibit it, academic conferences were called, and the BBC (not to be outdone) announced “Shakespeare Season” — including a three-part series about the “Rise of a Genius”, featuring a star-studded cast of actors and academics.

2 months ago | earlymodernscribbling.com | Piers Mucklejohn

In late 1513, a small book was put up for sale in a bookshop next to St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was a type of literature which is commonplace today, but Tudor readers had never seen before: a printed news report. News was not an unfamiliar concept by any means. It spread locally through word of mouth, across countries in written correspondence, and internationally via manuscript newsletter networks.

2 months ago | earlymodernscribbling.com | Piers Mucklejohn

By the 1590s, London’s population was very familiar with witches. The accusation, conviction, and execution of a witch brought with it all of the feverish local gossip and rumour that one might expect — which quickly spread across the country — but Londoners could read all about it in print, too.

Mar 28, 2025 | mylondon.news | Veronique Hawksworth |Matt Spivey |Piers Mucklejohn

London is well-known for its iconic red pillarboxes - but you may have also spotted a green hut in some parts of central London and wondered what it was for. Many Londoners may not realise that these green huts have offered London's cab drivers a respite and a quick bite since Victorian times. The huts are officially protected buildings after the last remaining shelter in St John's Wood joined the list in April 2024.