Goosey Goosey Gander may be about religious persecution, while Lucy Locket is about 18th Century prostitutes, writes Clemency Burton-Hill. Plague, medieval taxes, religious persecution, prostitution: ...

There is a reason that nursery rhymes and lullabies have existed and subsisted for decades or even hundreds of years. Their classic messages, catchy lyrics, and indelible characters bring joy to our ...

Sex, death and cruelty. Chris Roberts, the author of Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind the Rhyme, tells Debbie Elliott what lurks beneath the surface of those verses we learned as children ...