Favourite nursery rhymes?
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Gyles Brandreth has been in search of the hidden meaning behind nursery rhymes.
At the very beginning nursery rhymes weren't as we think of them today, according to Albert Jack, author of Pop Goes the Weasel. Lullabyes were used as a way of spreading news amongst the illiterate rural population instead of a way of singing our children to sleep.
Do you know the story behind Three Blind Mice? Well sit down and let The One Show tell you.
It's the story of Queen Mary I, who was also known as Bloody Mary. She hunted down the three Archbishops Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer during her Marian persecutions and demanded that they renounce their Protestant faith and declare themselves Catholic. They refused and so were blinded and burnt at the stake, passing into history as the Oxford Martyrs.
Despite the darker underbelly exposed in these seemingly saccharine stories, Children's Laureate Michael Rosen believes that the humble nursery rhyme provides the very building blocks of our children's imagination.
So, do you have a favourite, family rhyme? What rhyme or song was guaranteed to send your child to sleep?
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