It wasn’t all bad

A letter that got lost in the post a century ago has finally been delivered to a flat in Crystal Palace, south London. The letter was addressed to Mrs Oswald Marsh – the wife of a wellknown stamp dealer – and sent by her friend Christabel Mennell from Bath, where she had gone on holiday. It’s not clear where it has been for the past 100 years, but a local historian suggested that it might have got lost at Sydenham sorting office, and then been found during a recent redevelopment of the building.

Britain has endured a scorching summer followed by an unusually cold winter, but its reward will be a glorious spring blossom season. Plant experts at the Royal Horticultural Society say that this year’s weather conditions have been perfect for bud formation, and that the fruit trees in its various gardens are looking set to bear an abundance of blossom.The cold in February has prevented early flowering, which reduces the risk of the floriferousness being cut short by late frosts. In turn, this should also mean that the trees bear more fruit later in the year.

In 1916, Ernest Shackleton and five of his men boarded a small sailing boat, and sailed 800 miles across the South Atlantic to organise a rescue of the remaining crew of their ship, the Endurance, which had become trapped in Antarctic pack ice. Now, a team of six rowers has retraced part of that journey, to highlight what an achievement it was. Navigating icebergs and capsizing nearly 50 times, they covered 407 miles in six days, breaking eight world records in the process, before being defeated by “cliffs of water” and “horrendous” weather.