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From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
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Your support makes all the difference.For those who have ever looked for love in a newspaper column, take heart, your late 17th-century ancestors were doing the same. The lonely hearts format was born in 1695, in the Matrimonials section of The Times.
While they began as adverts for men seeking women of fortune, the changing tone and language over three centuries reflects the sexual politics of classes and eras, from a "fresh, free and willing Widdow" seeking sex, to a "gentleman of very considerable fortune" maimed by an ostrich kick in the East Indies, and a lady in 1921 who "will gladly marry officer totally blinded or... incapacitated in the War", right up to today's plea for a man with a GSOH.
A fascinating social history, this book will keep singletons warm on the 14th.
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