For six years during the late eighties and early nineties, Bainbridge often began her column with "Something happened yesterday..".. This offhand opening could lead to a humorous experience at a concert at the Albert Hall, a stint as a fortune-teller for her street's annual carnival in Camden Town, or excursions with her grandchildren to the Regents Park Zoo, shady Soho cinemas, and Madam Tussaud's Chambers of Horrors. She also works in anecdotes of her colorful past as well, such as her career performing sound effects for the Manchester BBC at the age of twelve, her arrival alone in London at sixteen, or the afternoon her ex-mother-in-law blew a hole in the ceiling with a pistol.

A new and very different delight for the many fans of Bainbridge's novels, Something Happened Yesterday also includes exchanges between Bainbridge and her readers, such like those with Fred about the history of beryl (the gemstone) and the committee for East Clyst's "Cooker Prize" of a gas oven for winning authors.