Folk tales often grow from periods of great hardship. The tale of Hansel and Gretel, though first written down much later, is thought to stem from the onset of the medieval cold period, known as the Little Ice Age and the Great Famine in Europe of the early...
Lindsay Mackie and Andrew Simms ask why we're not using proven alternatives to 'big' outsourcing News last week that Capita was in difficulties led to a near 50 percent drop in its share price as anxiety about its stability surged following the disclosure of net debts...
‘Back with the fairies’, by David Boyle, charts the strange revival of beliefs in fairies, asks in an age of irrational politics what might be driving the phenomenon, and what it might mean about seeking both escape and connections in the modern world. His...
BORDERLAND by New Weather’s Sarah Woods has won the Tinniswood Award, for best original radio drama script of 2017. The prize was presented by author Philip Pullman, and Sarah gave thanks to the people and organisations she worked with on the struggles of those forced...
Let me start with a story, which has to be a little obscure to protect the innocent. The government has a Voluntary Repatriation Scheme for asylum-seekers and refugees who find their home has changed, and who get employment back there. The scheme is administered by...
Behind the freezing weather that makes some wish for a warmer world, writes Bill McGuire, there is a climate in upheaval... As Britain faces its own bleak midwinter, the brutal cold snap that recently gripped much of North America has once again brought the climate...
It is a strange thing, vouchsafed to few of us, to find ourselves vindicated by the National Audit Office of all people. Yet I have been. I have explained here and elsewhere that the reason why the Govia Thameslink and Southern rail franchise had been such a disaster...
The refugee drama, Borderland, set in a near future Britain divided by borders, written by New Weather’s Sarah Woods, has been shortlisted for The Tinniswood Award, the UK’s leading prize for radio broadcasts. The Award, set up by the Society of Authors and Writers’...
Each year the Financial Times newspaper investigates the UK’s upcoming economic prospects with a survey of analysts. New Weather took part. For most the projection is ‘gloomy’. But, these are our responses to their questions on everything from growth to Brexit,...
The magician’s house, by Jan Dean, a chilly hearth-side story for the world we live in about a promise, begins a new, monthly feature from our project on modern folk tales for troubling times The magician’s house was first published in our collection of tales 'There...