It wasn’t all bad

A Kurdish Iranian man who came to Britain as a refugee in 2000 has been awarded the highest honour in mathematics, the Fields Medal. Professor Caucher Birkar, of the University of Cambridge, grew up in Iran during the 1980-88 Iran-iraq war, and studied in Nottingham after claiming asylum. Birkar was among four recipients of the prize, which was awarded in Brazil last week. He was recognised for his “proof of the boundedness of fano varieties”, among other achievements.

Leigh Holland-keen, a 29-year-old nurse from Australia, has become the first woman in almost 40 years to lift Scotland’s famous “Dinnie Steens” – two granite boulders weighing 332kg. Holland-keen, whose mother also took part in last week’s contest in Potarch, Aberdeenshire, succeeded in the task that has confounded strongmen and strongwomen for decades. Named after Donald Dinnie, who carried them across the width of the Potarch Bridge in 1860, the stones are seen as the “ultimate” challenge of their kind. Fewer than 100 people are thought to have ever managed to lift the stones.

When an audience that had paid up to £170 to watch Sir Ian Mckellen’s King Lear was told he would not be able to perform due to a leg injury, the actor took to the stage instead to tell stories about his career and answer questions. Last Saturday’s matinee audience, who also received refunds, enjoyed more than an hour’s discussion with the 79-year-old. Sitting in a chair on the stage at The Duke of York’s Theatre in London, he recited Shakespeare and performed as Gandalf, his character in The Lord of the Rings.