‘Inferior port, bad salads and hangovers’: newly discovered 1935 diary offers invaluable view of England’s festive past

A diary bought at auction reveals the antics of two intrepid gourmands in search of the perfect English Christmas

On 23 December 1935, a woman called Mouse" set off from her home in Earl's Court in search of Christmas in England.

In some remote corner of this island there must be a shining blazing hearth, beams laden with holly and mistletoe, and bustling happiness when the turkey and the plum pudding are cooking away in the big, old fashioned oven," Mouse writes of her festive road trip in a diary that has been bought at auction by the Dorset History Centre with funding from charitable organisation Dorset Archives Trust - and is an invaluable source for social historians.