2007 Articles by Amanda Foreman
2007
- The Sunday Times: December 23, 2007
Move over, Bratz . . . here’s Proverbs babe
What if our son starts swinging naked Jesus by his hair? We were presented with this dilemma after One2believe, an evangelical toy company, sent us a selection from its new range of biblical dolls. According to the company’s own press material, its goal is to challenge the dominance of secular toys. With nothing more than double-joints and removable sandals, One2believe wants to rescue the young from the horrors of their toy box. Away with smutty Bratz and slutty Barbie and welcome to modest Mary.The company knows it is up against a ferocious marketing machine. To illustrate the point, the official website has a Thunderbirds-like video of the Samson and Goliath dolls hurling themselves at each other, gladiator style. The website urges shoppers to “join the battle” by downloading posters and handing them out at church.........................
- The Sunday Times: 4th February 2007
Alpha Mum
Last July, while visiting England with my husband and three children, I had a sobering encounter with a stranger on a train. We started chatting and after a while I explained that I was a historian and had written a book about an 18th-century duchess. “Oh,” came the enthusiastic response, “you wrote that biography of Georgiana.” There was a pause, and then he added, “What happened to you?”What happened to me was this: I decided to have lots of children. While no competition to City whizz Helena Morrissey with her soon to be eight children, I will have five by this June. I married in 2000, two years after Georgiana appeared. Before I knew it, I was living in New York. Baby number one came in early 2002. Seventeen months later came baby number two. Baby number three, 20 months after that. The twins, babies numbers four and five, are following 24 months later. In short, I have been pregnant every year since 2001........................
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