Happy New Year from England 1961-62

BRRR HAPPY NEW YEAR (aka BRR-R BRITAIN ON ICE)

This is a fascinating little blast from the past! Video of life in Britain as the year turned from 1961 to 1962, one of the last winters C. S. Lewis experienced in his adopted country.

Lewis' brother Warren wrote this about the weather to a correspondent on 4 January 1962:

"We haven't any central heating here, but for the moment have plenty of coal fires, and a thermostat in the bathroom; but unless the freeze breaks we shall soon be short of coal. Already fresh vegetables have doubled in price, and the shops warn us that very soon we shall have no veg. except out of tins or packets. Which is a gloomy prospect, for we are normally large consumers of vegetables.

"The only person who is enjoying the weather is young Doug. We have a pretty large pond in our garden, frozen solid of course, and he and his pals spend most of the day skating. Short haired dogs do suffer considerably in this sort of weather; our Boxer doesn't get more than six inches from the fire if he can help it."

(Walter Hooper, The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, New York: HarperCollins, 2007, pp. 1309-1310.)

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