January 30th: National Croissant Day

It's National croissant day. Whether or not you have one for breakfast today, you can still digest these 10 facts about croissants.

1. They may be associated with France, but croissants actually originated in Austria in the 13th century, where a similar pastry was eaten, known as "kipferl".
2. The characteristic shape is thought to have come about as a celebration of the defeat of the Ottomans, since their flag had a crescent on it. It's possible that Viennese bakers, working at night, were the ones who gave the alarm that the Ottomans were trying to tunnel into the city. Whether or not those legends are true, some Islamic fundamentalists have banned the croissant due to its shape.
3. The word croissant means crescent in French.
4. So how did they come to be associated with France? One theory is that Marie Antoinette brought them with her when she married Louis XIV.
5. Another theory is that an Austrian artillery officer called August Zang, founded a Viennese bakery ("Boulangerie Viennoise") at 92, rue de Richelieu in Paris. The kipferl was one of his specialities and became so popular that French bakers began making them too.
6. Charles Dickens wrote about croissants in his periodical All the Year Round in 1872. He wrote: "the workman's pain de ménage and the soldier's pain de munition, to the dainty croissant on the boudoir table".
7. Croissants were exhibited at the 1889 World’s Fair.
8. They were made the French national product in 1920.
9. As well as National Croissant Day on January 30, in Poland they eat them on November 11, on St Martin's Day. St. Martin's croissants are made specially for the occasion from puff pastry with a filling made of ground white poppy seeds, Almonds, Raisins, and nuts.
10. In 2013, a chef called Dominque Ansel came up with the idea of crossing a croissant with a Doughnut, inventing the "cronut".

Golden Thread

Terry Kennedy is inexplicably and inexorably drawn to the small town of Fiveswood as a place to live and work after university. He is sure he has never visited the town before, but when he arrives there, it seems oddly familiar.

Fiveswood has a rich and intriguing history. Local legends speak of giants, angels, wolves, a local Robin Hood, but most of all, a knight in golden armour. Fiveswood's history also has a dark side - mysterious deaths blamed on the plague, a ghostly black panther, and a landslide which buried the smugglers' caves.

Terry buys an apartment in The Heights, a house which has been empty for decades, since the previous owner disappeared. Now he has finally been declared dead, developers have moved in and turned it into six flats. Terry has the odd feeling he has lived in this enigmatic house before. But that is not all. Since childhood, Terry has had recurring, disturbing dreams which have been increasing in frequency so that now, he has them almost every night. To his dismay, the people from his nightmares are his new neighbours.

Except, that is, for Eleanor Millbrook. She is refreshingly unfamiliar. After Terry saves her from a mysterious attacker, they become close. However, Terry's nightmares encroach more and more on his waking life, until they lead him to a devastating discovery about who he really is.

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