Eddy's Good News: Lost letters of Mary Queen Of Scots and ways to discuss topics at dinner

Virgin Radio

13 Feb 2023, 11:09

Every day during his show on Virgin Radio, Eddy Temple-Morris brings you Good News stories from around the world, to help inject a bit of positivity into your day!Be sure to listen each day between 10am and 1pm (Monday - Friday) to hear Eddy's Good News stories (amongst the finest music of course), but if you miss any of them you can catch up on the transcripts of Eddy's most recent stories below:

Monday 13th February 2023

Great news for Tudor history buffs from France, where the lost letters of Mary Queen Of Scots have been found and more importantly decoded!

Say bonjour to the French National Library, who had a bunch of letters addressed to the French ambassador to England during Elizabeth i’s reign. They were written in code so indecipherable that they were mistakenly lumped into a file of correspondence with italians. Fast forward to today and three code breaker buffs who came across them and quickly realised they were nothing to do with Italy. 

Their sensational sleuthing revealed feminine verbs, regular mentions of captivity, and the name ‘Walsingham’ a key player at that time, all of which pointed at these being Mary’s letters, written between 1578 and 1584. Once they cracked the code, they saw the letters revealed the challenges Mary had maintaining links with the world outside her cell and her network of catholic spies, she also talked about her ill health because of the poor conditions she faced.  The letters also shed light on the political players of the day and her mistrust of most of them, it’s fascinating stuff and now in our British National Archives.

Via: goodnewsnetwork.org

Good news from the USA where a man has started a new type of supper club, but for people who don’t see eye to eye.

Say hello to Ted Wetzel, who after a dinner where he got in a fight with friends who had very different political leanings, he decided to turn that into a positive thing, so he started Dinner And A Fight! Except the world fight is crossed out and replaced by ‘Dialogue’.

Around 30 people of different political persuasions, different social backgrounds, religions, or colour come to have dinner. They discuss a really contentious topic but in an organised way, with the objectives being not to argue, but to seek to understand, it’s a bridge building exercise so people can see and hear the very human stories behind polarised opinions. The debate happens between main course and dessert so then everybody can come together for the sweetest part of the dinner and reflect, united by their mantra “it’s OK to disagree”. It’s been a huge success and they’ve always found at least one thing they all agreed on!

Via: goodnewsnetwork.org