A librarian’s approach to getting everything in order — One of the skills inculcated in people seeking to become professional librarians is Classification — the business of organising bookstock (etc) in subject groups so that it is easier for intending users to browse the shelves and find books on the same subjects close by each other and ones on…

Some of the truth—only lightly varnished! — Hello! My name is John Welford, although I had a different one when I started out. A Short(-ish) Autobiography I was born as Derek Clayton in August 1952 in Falkirk, Scotland. However, my birth was far from intended, with my natural father not being my mother’s husband, so it was a case of…

Six sites given special recognition — The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has, for more than fifty years, recognized the importance of preserving the cultural and natural heritage of regions and nations across the world. One way it does this is by maintaining a World Heritage List of sites of outstanding universal value…

He is probably best-known for his radio play “Under Milk Wood” — Dylan Marlais Thomas was born in Swansea, south-west Wales, on 27th October 1914. His parents were Jack, a schoolmaster, and Florence, a railwayman’s daughter. Although his father was bilingual, Dylan never spoke Welsh. Indeed, he came to regard Wales outside Swansea as a strange, almost barbaric country. He always pronounced…

Was he rescued by the Queen of the Elves? — King James IV of Scotland was killed at the Battle of Flodden Field on 9th September 1513, following his unwise invasion of England while King Henry VIII was out of the country. The battle was a massacre and there was some doubt as to which body was that of the…

It depends on where you start the measurement from — The highest mountain in the world? That has to be Mount Everest, surely? Well, yes … if measured from height above sea level. …

A geology field trip had unexpected consequences — On 27th December 1831 HMS Beagle, a naval sloop that had been converted to a brig by the addition of an extra mast, set sail from Plymouth, its five-year mission being not so much to explore new worlds as to conduct a survey of the coasts of South America for…

Nobody would let him defy the Force of Gravity! — On 2nd August 1979, an unsuspecting public read in its morning papers that Paul Goldin was planning a “Levitation Leap” from 2,000 ft. He intended to bale out of an aeroplane at that height above Ipswich and use levitation to “float” safely to the ground: “I believe that the mind…

Audiences loved him, but he had to go! — As well as being rather good at writing, Shakespeare was also interested in the different acting techniques employed by his colleagues. It is fair to say he enjoyed some styles better than others. Let’s meet Will Kempe, for instance. Not much is known about his background, but Will Kempe managed…