Ten things you never knew about... April

The month of April has now settled in, so let’s try to get to know it a little better.

1. In the UK, April is National Pet Month and Bowel Cancer Awareness Month…

2. In the US, April is the Awareness Month for Mathematics, Stress and STD, and throughout the world it is Jazz Awareness Month.

3. “April is the cruellest month…” Opening line to TS Eliot’s The Waste Land)…

4. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen…” ( Opening line of George Orwell’s 1984).

5. ‘ April’ was the 250th most common name for a

baby girl in the UK in 2013. In the US it was 423rd.

6. According to a recent analysis, April showers more often than not do not bring May flowers.

7. According to the Oxford Dictionary an ‘ April gentleman’ once meant ‘ a foolish man; specifically a newly married husband, considered as a fool’.

8. “Men are April when they woo, December when they wed.” ( Shakespeare, As You Like It)

9. Four US Presidents were born and four died during the month of April; in the UK three prime ministers were born and three died in April.

10. No film with ‘ April’ in its title or actress named ‘ April’ has won an Oscar but in 1994 April Ferry was nominated for Best Costume Design for ‘ Maverick’.