Mini Mary Beard
Arabella, 8, brings past to life on Instagram
LIKE many little girls, Arabella Duffy loves raiding the dressing-up box to look like a princess.
But the eight-year-old’s penchant for a regal frock is not just for fun – she assumes the guise of historical figures to give lessons to other children in lockdown.
As well as Queen Victoria, Elizabeth I and Cleopatra, she has imitated wartime prime minister Winston Churchill in her five-minute classes, delivered to primary-schoolage youngsters in videos posted on social media.
She has nearly 14,000 followers on Instagram – and won support from grown-up historians too, such as classicist Mary Beard, who shared one of her lessons, and Dan Snow.
At this rate Arabella, nicknamed Lou Lou, could soon be giving historian Lucy Worsley – known for donning period costumes in her TV series – a run for her money.
Arabella, who has also dressed up as a suffragette, a Tudor market vendor and her own teacher character ‘Miss Duffy’, said of her videos: ‘I enjoy doing them with my mum as it gives me a focus and something to do in the mornings. I just love learning and sharing it with people.
Sometimes I even get to teach my mum new things she doesn’t know.’
The youngster, from Hampstead, north-west London, has also acted in West End musical Waitress and was the voice of Betty in CBeebies show Hey Duggee. She has always been home schooled by her artist mother Sophy Robertson Smith, 54. They live with Arabella’s father Carey Duffy, also 54, a sales director for a maker of film and TV lenses.
Arabella researches the topics for her lessons from books. But when she played a Second World War evacuee, she based it on her grandmother June’s memories of the conflict.
Miss Robertson Smith said: ‘She just wants to help share interesting facts she’s learnt.
‘She’s just a regular kid who wants to make a difference. A lot of kids are struggling with anxiety because of the lockdown and this just helps.’
Miss Worsley, who is chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces, has also dressed up as Elizabeth I, as well as both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in her show Royal Palace Secrets. The presenter has previously told how much she enjoys wearing historical costumes, saying it is ‘sometimes for serious intent, sometimes for frivolous’.
‘Wants to make a difference’