London, March 1 (Reuters): Bed-hopping royals. Religious hatred. Teenage sex. Obesity warnings.

Tabloid headlines? No, Britain’s favourite nursery rhymes. Parents may throw up their hands in horror but a new book says that playground ditties are drenched in sex, death and violence and prove that many 21st century concerns have been around for a long time.

“Some were clearly adult rhymes which were sung to children because they were the only rhymes an adult knew. Others were deliberately created as a simple way to tell children a story or give them information,” Chris Roberts, author of Heavy Words Lightly Thrown said.

“Religion, sex, money and social issues are all common themes and although there is a tendency to look at history through the concerns of the present it was something I was led to rather than sought to do,” Roberts said.

As an example, one of Britain’s most popular nursery rhymes, Jack and Jill went up the Hill is according to Roberts the tale of two young people losing their virginity, Jill possibly becoming pregnant and the regrets that come later.

“The interesting bit is that, having successfully ‘lost his crown’, it’s Jack who runs off rapidly, probably to tell his mates what happened,” Roberts said. In an alternative second verse the sexual association of the rhyme becomes even more blatant, Roberts added. Instead of his head, Jack has a different part of his anatomy patched up with vinegar and brown paper.

Although some nursery rhymes appear to have their origins in the Middle Ages, their golden age was the period between the Tudor monarchs and the Stuarts. This was Britain’s formative age, says Roberts, as it covered among many other things the Act of Union, which brought together Scotland and England, the Civil War and the growth of Empire and trading.

The Book of Common Prayer and the King James Bible were published in English rather than Latin and caused even deeper rifts between Protestants and Catholics.

Some rhymes like Oranges and Lemons — a guide to the City of London which also doubles as a saucy wedding song — cropped up obviously.

In other cases geographical research revealed social history such as the fact that prostitutes in the Southwark area of London (where licensed brothels existed) were called “geese”.

Thus the rhyme: Goosie, goosie gander/Where do you wander?/Upstairs and downstairs/and in my lady’s chamber can be read as alluding to the spread of venereal disease — known as “goose bumps” because of the swelling.