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Sam loves history, we both do actually, but I often try and find him gifts that are not only a little bit different or unusual but that are also useful past the initial ‘oh that’s a nice present’ stage! This year for Father’s Day he was the recipient of a Historic Newspapers hardback News of the Decade book for the year he was born – the 1980’s. In fact I was born in the same decade so I’ve been enjoying it too.
You can choose your decade, from the 1930’s right up to the 1990’s so these make a great gift for recipients of all ages. You can have a name or phrase embossed on the front cover too for ultimate personalisation. The book arrived in a gift box which was a lovely touch, and will help to protect it in the future, as well as reducing the amount of wrapping you may need to do. Also handy if you’re not seeing your relative on his birthday/Christmas/Father’s Day and need to have it sent directly to them.
Each book will contain over 100 news stories from your chosen decade, covering all the important topics of those times. As well as the new stories you see the adverts, competitions and so on that were popular back then – some are pretty eye opening as to the difference between the 2020’s and the 1980’s. It will come as no surprise that the royals were still very much in the news for a lot of the time, including when Prince Charles bought Diana a car, and when Prince William was born of course – being an heir to the throne!
More surprising front page news was the Queen having a Wisdom tooth removed and Richard Branson leaping out of a hot air balloon and having to be rescued by the Navy from the Irish Sea. Less surprising was news from Northern Ireland and the Troubles and Maggie Thatcher too.
These books make great coffee table books too, as you can pick one up and open it at random, or just dip in and out when you have five minutes.
Ordering was really easy, once you have decided which type of book to go for! There is a lot of choice at Historic Newspapers, alongside the ‘Decade’ series there are war, sports, ‘Life in Pictures’, recipes and more to choose from. There is also a range of original newspapers available from dates right back to 1900. Of course not all dates will be available, especially the very old ones but I really love this idea, how cool would it be to read the paper from cover to cover on the day you were born?