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This week at The Archive we’re excited to welcome five brand new titles to our collection, and we’re especially delighted to welcome one of the longest running Free Church newspapers to our holdings, namely the Baptist Times. Meanwhile, we’ve added 125,635 brand new pages to The Archive in all over the past seven days, with updates to eleven of our existing titles, including to the world’s oldest English language general daily newspaper still in circulation, the Belfast News-Letter.So read on…

This week at The Archive we are marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day by examining the striking front pages of our newspapers. We’re also continuing to add new pages to our collection, with 125,548 brand new pages joining us over the last seven days, which includes the addition of five brand new newspaper titles and the updating of eighteen of our existing titles from across the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.So read on to see the headlines…

This month marks the 80th anniversary of VE Day – the day that peace in Europe was finally declared. After nearly six years of conflict – how did the newspapers of the time report the momentous news? How did the people of Britain react?Gloucestershire Echo | 8 May 1945Using the front pages from the 8 May 1945, VE Day itself, we take a step back in time to discover just how the joyous news spread, and how it was reacted to.Register now and explore…

This week at The Archive we are delighted to welcome a brand new title from the sunny south coast, the Bournemouth Times and Directory, as we take a moment to remember the devastating Bournemouth Blitz. In all, over the last seven days, we’ve added 366,686 brand new pages to our collection, whilst we’ve updated 25 of our existing titles from across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.So, from Buckingham to Burnley, from Dingwall to Driffield, from Mid Sussex to Mid Ulster, read…

In March 1935 the seaside resort town of Bournemouth was shaken by a sensational murder. Retired architect Francis Mawson Rattenbury, aged 67, was found dead at his home, Villa Madeira, on Manor Road. Accused of his murder were his younger wife Alma Rattenbury, and her lover, 18-year-old gardener George Stoner.This case would end in further tragedy, and in this special blog, using pages from the British Newspaper Archive, we explore how murder came to the genteel town of Bournemouth in the…

‘Disliking urban surroundings,’ Jane Austen ‘relied on the English countryside for her own happiness and for the background of her novels,’ so writes Wendy Hope in a 1975 Illustrated London News article. In this special blog, using pages taken from the British Newspaper Archive, we will explore the locations where celebrated novelist Jane Austen lived, wrote, and visited, and how they informed her novels.Want to learn more? Register now and explore The ArchiveIllustrated London News | 1 December 1975Bath – ‘A Determined…

This day marks the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death. During the last two centuries, Jane Austen has become a household name. Austen and her modest-sized collection of works has enjoyed a vibrant presence in both academia and western culture, from quotes on magnets and clothing to movie adaptations and sequels to her novels. Austen’s name is equally as at home in highbrow literary essays and criticism as it is in contemporary periodicals meant for mass consumption, such as the…

While researching A Visitor’s Guide to Jane Austen’s England, author Sue Wilkes discovered an amazing romance which could have appeared in an Austen novel. We love hearing about what you’re finding in the newspapers. Tell us about your own discoveries in the comments section below. ************** Heiress Augusta Nicholson, a most intrepid young lady, showed great ingenuity when she fell in love with handsome John Giles, a penniless comedian.Miss Nicholson was a ward of chancery and would inherit £14,000 when she…