Brat summer is a distant memory, its battleaxe winter: season of boilers, dragons & fearsome maiden aunts. Get in girls, we’re wearing our most moth eaten fur coats & rocking up in a fug of Embassy & Yardley with a box of York Fruits & a bottle of Harvey’s Bristol Cream & shit’s about to get real - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

regretteruane.bsky.social • 80 days ago

Brat summer is a distant memory, its battleaxe winter: season of boilers, dragons & fearsome maiden aunts.
Get in girls, we’re wearing our most moth eaten fur coats & rocking up in a fug of Embassy & Yardley with a box of York Fruits & a bottle of Harvey’s Bristol Cream & shit’s about to get real

Comments

kapustadave.bsky.social•72 days ago

Violet Carson was a very talented musician. Not only singing and playing piano on Children’s Hour, she also premiered new works by such composers as Sir Michael Tippett. I hope these recordings still exist in the BBC Archives.

enricharch.bsky.social•78 days ago

Minnie, Ena and Martha. What a triumvirate!

crone-court.bsky.social•70 days ago

Love this memory of childhood. Thank you for signposting @mscaitlinmoran.bsky.social

wheresmybook.bsky.social•78 days ago

Wow! That photo brings back my childhood.

lucyfurleaps.bsky.social•80 days ago

Feeling this! Is Consulate permissable? My nan smoked 40 a day but never inhaled...

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Even better - the battleaxe community is devastated by the demise of menthol tabs

lucyfurleaps.bsky.social•80 days ago

😂

jolloyds.bsky.social•80 days ago

Saw this this morning and thought of you (in a good way!) https://bsky.app/profile/tanitatikaram.bsky.social/post/3lciliv3gak2y

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Oh this is amazing! Thank you!🩷💕

juliacreatesjoy.bsky.social•80 days ago

My Nan is a member of the local working men’s club, Saturday night is bingo night, I have never had such a rip roaring time as I do with the battle axes there.

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Absolutely scenes and bed at a reasonable hour. Cannot be beaten

jennyknight.bsky.social•80 days ago

I can smell this.

regretteruane.bsky.social•79 days ago

Every element of it!

aunticles.bsky.social•80 days ago

Now you're talking 🔥

bonniegrrl.bsky.social•79 days ago

❤️❤️❤️

cdelull.bsky.social•80 days ago

HUGE MOOD

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Perpetually🩷💕

bornsmiledie.bsky.social•80 days ago

Hairnets & Curlers!

paulsw4.bsky.social•79 days ago

I’m going to campaign to restore “fug” into modern parlance for Minnie and Ena and dropping it into conversation now.

regretteruane.bsky.social•79 days ago

Excellent idea!

jphendo.bsky.social•78 days ago

Wow, a Christmas soap where even the battleaxes are smiling while today you know the East Enders equivalent will just be them arguing and having serious talks on the stairs as usual but wearing party hats and Christmas jumpers as a nod to the season. What happened to the cliché chirpy cockney?

g0blinegg.bsky.social•80 days ago

I adore this. Off to get my faux fur and red lippy 💄

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

YES!!!💋💋💋

mccannthecan.bsky.social•80 days ago

i mainly know old Corrie from Victoria Wood, so is the lady on the right Martha Longhurst?

hey-jude300.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yes

capjd.bsky.social•80 days ago

There are some mid to late 60s full episodes of corrie on YouTube.....

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Oh wonderful, then I know how I’ll be spending that downtime between Christmas and new year! Thank you

capjd.bsky.social•80 days ago

Here's one to get you started

https://youtu.be/HUQeZuKIs_8?si=e515WSbXO-ZfIROW

mccannthecan.bsky.social•80 days ago

oh brilliant - thank you so much

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Thank you!

zoesomerville.bsky.social•80 days ago

That's more like it

drewgum.bsky.social•80 days ago

I’ve passed the summer without knowing what brat means….

lucyfurleaps.bsky.social•80 days ago

Me too

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

The battleaxe is the important part. In fact it’s more in the spirit of it to have no idea of what’s going on with the kidz

drewgum.bsky.social•80 days ago

But I’m all up for battle axe!

lolliepoppster.bsky.social•80 days ago

My fake fur is bright peacock blue, will that be acceptable? #oldskooltechnobattleaxe

threadsaplenty.bsky.social•80 days ago

York Fruits! I could trough* a box of Sun Vale jelly fruit slices right now too.
(*theoretically, probably too sweet if they are still around)

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Oh I must have some of those! I wonder if it’s possible

threadsaplenty.bsky.social•80 days ago

Poundland and B&M do a version that's just the orange and lemon ones.

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

That would do nicely!

mbrown007.bsky.social•79 days ago

Love this photo. :)

collettwriter.bsky.social•80 days ago

I love you Rose

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

I love you darling xxxx

collettwriter.bsky.social•80 days ago

I know that! I also know we'd be a very bad Christmas cocktail together indeed xx

regretteruane.bsky.social•79 days ago

A mischievous Molotov we would be xx

collettwriter.bsky.social•79 days ago

Best kept away from naked flames...

juliasreading.bsky.social•80 days ago

I think this is the most nostalgic thing I’ve ever read. I have so many feelings right now.

regretteruane.bsky.social•79 days ago

Me too. A yearning so deep my heart is almost beating The Little Drummer boy

gargarin.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yep there were shelves stacked with Warnick's, and Cherry B in Morrisons last night

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Does anyone ever need to buy a new bottle of advocaat? Has anyone ever finished a whole one?
I could fair go a snowball now, mind you…

marthamcc.bsky.social•80 days ago

I had never heard of advocaat. It sounds delicious.

threadsaplenty.bsky.social•80 days ago

I'd happily join you and I'm now trying to resist adding a bottle of Warninks to my christmas shop.

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Treat yourself and don’t forget the cocktail cherries!

threadsaplenty.bsky.social•80 days ago

Not saying I'm a big 70s fan but I did this the last time I bought a bottle of advocaat.

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regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

We are kindred spirits - everything in that picture I also own! How delightful. Also that is the perfect soul of a snowball!

gargarin.bsky.social•80 days ago

Perfect drinking advocaat out of one of those calendar/month Hornsea mugs would be good too

gargarin.bsky.social•80 days ago

I tried Cherry B recently thought it would be more syrupy but it's sort of a sweetish alcopop basically

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

I’ve got some lovely Cherry B glasses but they’re so tiny that I also assumed it must be almost liqueur like & I was so surprised when it was basically Hooch twenty years before Hooch was invented too

gargarin.bsky.social•80 days ago

Of course the OG Nan's drink is a tin of Makeson's

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

A stout for the staunch

redscharlach.bsky.social•80 days ago

I've only ever seen an advocaat bottle in one condition, and that condition is best described as "suppurating".

smackie.org•80 days ago

My gran had a Advocaat bottle that had to be surreptitiously checked annually before Christmas to make sure it didn’t actually kill her on the big day…

gargarin.bsky.social•80 days ago

My parents weren't drinkers, even though we had a Stag wall unit with fold down drinks cabinet . There used to be a bottle of Drambuie in there that lasted the entire year

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Also, scabrous - a gritty crystal clot round the lid that would need Geoff Capes to come back from the dead to actually open it

pipkazan.bsky.social•80 days ago

We used to get a miniature of Advocaat in our Christmas stockings from about age 6 onwards. neVeR DId me ANy haRm!

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

The proper binmen brought all the children advocaat at Christmas when I was a nipper, washed down with a nice drink from the hosepipe & a sound thrashing.
Kids these days don’t know they’re born

pipkazan.bsky.social•80 days ago

Instead of Santa coming down the chimney with the Advocaat, we had to climb up it holding a brush, to fetch it

npitchford.bsky.social•79 days ago

I am seriously on the lookout for a bottle of Bristol Cream this week. (Also might get my hair “set.”)

regretteruane.bsky.social•79 days ago

Don’t forget to carry a rainmate to protect your demiwave!

npitchford.bsky.social•79 days ago

And some lightly fuzz-coated boiled sweets

regretteruane.bsky.social•79 days ago

Definitely those too, you never know when you might need to disappoint a child!

npitchford.bsky.social•79 days ago

Haha exactly!

broomwagon.bsky.social•80 days ago

Brilliant. I remember working in a pub in the late 80s and early 90s and we would get through crates of Cherry B, Babycham and the small bottles of ready made snowballs. This was in Stoke on Trent and if anyone had ordered a half a lager and lime that was considered to be ordering a cocktail.

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Oh this really made me laugh so much. I used to work in a pub in Glasgow where it was frowned upon to get a packet of crisps because “eating is cheating” & “if you want your dinner, go up the fucking road”

broomwagon.bsky.social•80 days ago

My brother took his then new girlfriend (now wife) on a date to a pub in Silverdale (which was a mining community). She ordered a gin and tonic. They eventually found a dusty gin bottle in the cellar. She asked for ice and a slice. Bemused looks all round. They eventually put a glace cherry in it.

capjd.bsky.social•80 days ago

Is it any wonder that Les Dawson and Roy Barraclough were loved so much in their roles as Sissy and Ada? Channelling all those battleaxes. The silently mouthed words were a nod to the mill workers who learned to lip read due to the racket of looms and continued o/side mills to chat w-out kids hearng

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

That’s so beautifully put

stuhennigan.bsky.social•80 days ago

Proustian overload at the stink of #1, Yardley + Sherry. My festive childhood in 3 strikes.

annawatson99.bsky.social•80 days ago

God I LOVE York Fruits.

davidcollard.bsky.social•80 days ago

Count me in. Perhaps we can arrange a live shared online screening of Sailor Beware, featuring Peggy Mount as the immortal Ma Hornet, mother of all battleaxes. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x93sz20

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regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yes please! May we also screen this phenomenal short documentary about singing landlady Black Anna?
https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-life-and-music-of-black-anna-1973-online

davidcollard.bsky.social•80 days ago

This was new to me - wonderful! The pub had a reputation and is still recalled fondly today, forty years after it closed. A double bill then?

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Definitely! Invites to be sent on the back of a Ruskin Spear postcard

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nikkimarmery.bsky.social•80 days ago

I’m in!

regretteruane.bsky.social•79 days ago

Yay!

anitachaudhuri.bsky.social•80 days ago

I can taste those York fruits. My mother used to have a pal called Una. She would arrive in a cloud of Tweed and bring us the sweets and also cheese footballs…

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Honestly, that’s the battleaxe equivalent of gold, frankincense & myrrh

pipkazan.bsky.social•80 days ago

Can I just say…

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regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Necessary & inevitable. Makes me think of that line from Sir Henry at Rawlinson End “English as tuppence…”

anitachaudhuri.bsky.social•80 days ago

Hahaha too right

sandymcwatson.bsky.social•79 days ago

Still get the Harvey's and the York Fruits in every chimbletide. Have done since my bonafide Embassy Regal smoking boiler of a mam died when I was 24. 👵🏼🚬💪🏼 #Tradition

regretteruane.bsky.social•79 days ago

YES! Some things are worth keeping up on the yearly. I’m sorry you lost your mum so young though❤️

traviata.bsky.social•80 days ago

I’ll bring the Babycham!

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yes please!!!

traviata.bsky.social•80 days ago

I grew up around battleaxes - tough older women who’d lived through the war and weren’t to be messed with, but who were always available to help in any crisis. I knew I’d eventually become one!

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yes! And there was that sense of all they continued to live with & were unable or unwelcome to speak about & how it was expressed in that unsinkability - that affection might never be expressed in words but certainly would be in deeds

traviata.bsky.social•80 days ago

Oh yes - the kindest women I knew, but you hardly ever heard of what they’d gone through. And fiercely loyal and protective too. You knew where to turn in a disaster.

paulaflucas.bsky.social•80 days ago

A couple of 50p’s in the bottom of your handbag to foist squarely in the palm of young relatives…’get yourself a little something this Christmas’ ❤️

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

I can’t wait to pretend I don’t understand the value of money - “there’s a pound, get yourself one of those newfangled compact discs dear”

fleasondogs.bsky.social•79 days ago

Laughing to the point of crying 🤣

regretteruane.bsky.social•79 days ago

Oh that’s lovely🥰

paulaflucas.bsky.social•80 days ago

☺️

suchmayer.bsky.social•80 days ago

Co-signed by my grandma, who tore the filters off cigarettes, altered her birth certificate so she cd keep working as an NHS secretary long after retirement & bleached her own hair with Domestos. Nothing so punk as a battleaxe.

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

She sounds legendary. Thornbacks, battleaxes & the formidable, unknowingly camp nanas ftw.
Last Christmas one such elder in my life lit some fireworks with a pair of her old pants soaked in paraffin & then got so boxed she thanked me for washing up the next day when she’d actually done it herself

scribblerevans.bsky.social•80 days ago

Pray I live long enough to become this iconic.

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Genuinely can’t wait to be kept alive entirely by spite & lipstick

suchmayer.bsky.social•80 days ago

It's why lipstick is so sticky...

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Yes! For headlong love & a will of iron expressed in indelible kisses

suchmayer.bsky.social•80 days ago

Oh wow, like Gandalf grandma levels of classic here.

I probs shd be keeping this under wraps but my new book ends with the coining of the word: grandmanarchism.

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

Oh, I am always SO excited to read new writing by you but this sends my anticipation into the stratosphere in a rainbow rocket

suchmayer.bsky.social•80 days ago

ROSE 🥰🥰🥰

susannacrossman.bsky.social•80 days ago

That is the story of the Leonora Carrington novel The Hearing Trumpet.

suchmayer.bsky.social•80 days ago

Absolutely 💯

suchmayer.bsky.social•80 days ago

Also Ursula K Le Guin's story "The Day Before the Revolution" (im Paul Goodman), although Odo is not a bio grandparent...

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ursula-k-le-guin-the-day-before-the-revolution

stuhennigan.bsky.social•80 days ago

Had a great aunty who docked Capstans and relit them every third puff. Drank Pusser's navy rum 😳

regretteruane.bsky.social•80 days ago

I love those great aunts & nanas. I had one whose face I don’t think I ever really saw because she was so totally wreathed in a weather of Player’s all the time.
She just never didn’t have a tab on & your eyes practically started stinging when you turned the corner onto her road

littleramstudio.bsky.social•79 days ago

But will it be teeth in or out and will it be worth putting both top and bottom set in?

regretteruane.bsky.social•79 days ago

Whatever makes you comfortable. Also depends on whether toffees are to be involved