What is The Haddenham Herald?
The Haddenham Herald is a satirical and absurd local newspaper. The ferry terminal is not being built. There is no tiger. The Horticultural Society is not a front for anything, probably.
The names. Most people in our stories are made up. Some are real and named on purpose, usually because they run a shop, a pub or an event the village should know about, and usually with their say-so. The joke is with them rather than at them. Shops, pubs, the green and the village hall keep their real names. People in public life, from MPs to the King, are fair game under their own.
What is real. It varies, and that is rather the point. Some pieces are completely true and say so, with the words “Straight report, not satire”. Some are invented from start to finish to send you to a real jumble sale, and finish with its real date, time and place, which we check. Some are a real event with the facts left standing and the rest made up around them.
The rest of it is a village taking the mick out of itself, affectionately.
Everyone should smile more. That is the entire business plan. We have shown it to an accountant and he asked us to leave.
Being a grown up is largely a scam, sustained by people who have forgotten what is objectively funny. Do not lose that. Never grow up.
Public bodies and public figures, acting in their public role, are fair game. Real people's private lives are not. The full set of rules we write to is on How the Herald is written.
Something urgent, or about a child? Do not use this site. The numbers for Buckinghamshire Council and the police are on our contact page.