Upcoming Guest Speaker

Susan Ackroyd has excelled in many careers, commencing  as a High School English/ History teacher, then spent over 20 years teaching migrants and refugees.

Susan retrained to become a lawyer, where she spent 6 years delving into Elder Law. The Education sector lured her back, and she investigated poor quality training, poor standards in age care and early childhood education. 

Now retired, Susan has written Rhyme and Reason (English history through nursery rhymes). Published in April by Austin Macauley, London.

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RHYME AND REASON
Gain an understanding of history from medieval times through to the 1700s through these rhymes and their stories. Understand how a nursery rhyme we recite today started life as a political comment and was passed down through the years until now we have forgotten the politics.

The fascinating origin of many of our well known rhymes dates back at least to the 13th century. Most of the 26 rhymes explored in the book are political satire, mocking the establishment of the day, such that heads or liberty were not lost. The Tudor and Stuart periods of the 16th and 17th centuries produced rhymes depicting the turbulent relationship between monarch and people, catholics and protestants,  and how parliament and king battled over taxation. 

It is quite amazing that orally transmitted rhymes from the 13th to the 18th centuries are still known and recited today. Parents, grandparents, and teachers will find the origin of these rhymes fascinating.