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Editor: by Tim Lenton   Graham Greene – novelist, short story writer, playwright and journalist – died 30 years ago, on 3rd April 1991, of leukaemia. He was 86. Widely recognised as an outstanding novelist, he was the author of Brighton Rock, Our Man in Havana and many more. His first name was actually Henry,...

One in 20 children aged 11 to 17 is vulnerable to falling victim to serious violence, or even becoming a perpetrator by being sucked into gang membership in the UK. The worst blackspots are Middlesbrough and Manchester, where the percentage is not one in 20, but one in three. Based on these figures, the children’s...

For the first time ever in its 108-year history, Chelsea Flower Show will not be held in the Spring, but in the Autumn. The 2021 Chelsea Flower Show will now take place from 21st to 26th September. The Royal Horticultural Society, the show organisers, will still hold it at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea. The...

If you do your weekly food shop at a supermarket convenience store, you will be paying up to £320 more a year than if you had used one of the bigger branches. According to a recent study by Which? Tesco Express costs £5.37 more a week, or £279 a year, while Sainsbury’s Local stores cost...

All in the month of MARCH Wear your Marie Curie daffodil and unite in memory Why not contact a lonely neighbour? Ten years of Syria at war How Sunday became a Christian day of rest 150 years of the Royal Albert Hall Remembering Richard Burton – Victorian explorer, writer and translator Combatting the spread of...

It was: 1700 years ago, on 7th March 321, that the Roman Emperor Constantine 1 (Constantine the Great) decreed that Sunday should be a day of rest throughout the Empire. 1600 years ago, on 25th March 421, that the city of Venice was officially founded when its first church was dedicated at noon. 300 years...

Marie Curie, the UK’s leading end-of-life care charity will this year celebrate their 35th annual Great Daffodil Appeal, which is held every March across the UK. The money raised from this appeal enables the charity to continue their vital work providing care and support to people living with a terminal illness and their families. The...

The public have been urged to write letters to their lonely neighbours, as the Government has announced a £7.5million cash injection for community-boosting activities. It is hoped that people will “reach out virtually and help combat loneliness”, says Robert Jenrick, the Communities Secretary.  This could be done either by “picking up the phone or writing...

Ten years ago, on 15th March 2011, the Syrian Civil War began. It continues today. Hostilities started with “Arab Spring” pro-democracy demonstrations that were crushed by President Bashar al-Assad, and the violence spread, with different groups, backed by various countries, joining in. The Sunni Muslim majority clashed with the President’s Shia Alawite sect, and jihadist...

It was 1700 years ago, on 7th March 321, that the Roman Emperor Constantine 1 (Constantine the Great), who had converted to Christianity, decreed that Sunday should be a day of rest throughout the Empire. This was a change from normal Roman Empire practice, which was to regard Sunday as just another work-day – something...

Joyce Grenfell wrote a wonderful song, Joyful Noise, about three lady choristers: Miss Clissold, Miss Truss and Ivy Trembley. Their greatest delight was to sing in an oratorio at the Royal Albert Hall. ‘It may be like a gasworks with a green-house roof above it, and it may lack convenience, but all the same we...

Two hundred years ago, on 19th March 1821, Sir Richard Burton, British explorer, writer and translator, was born in Torquay. He was noted for his unexpurgated translations of The Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra, but his interests were much wider. He was a scholar, a diplomat, a spy and an Orientalist, and the first...