Bizarre England

Who knew, for example, that Her Majesty the Queen uses her handbag to send coded messages to members of staff, or that she was once barred from an event at Windsor by a castle guard who mistook her for ‘some old dear’ who had lost her way?

rope, courtesy of the Crusaders, they were grown only by monks for medicinal use and to make jam.

Mink frequently kill more than they eat, and treat their supposedly secure pens like hotels

‘I haven’t been down there myself but from what I gather the aliens are very advanced.’
William Francis Brinsley Le Poer Trench, eighth Earl of Clancarty (1911–95)

That’s history. I say history because it happened in the past.’

Besides cricket the English invented a whole bunch of other sports, too – so many indeed that really the only surprise is that we rarely win at anything

Badminton: Originally known as ‘battledore and shuttlecock

valuable natural preservative

As he’d just finished ransacking various monasteries in an attempt to raise funds to fight his father this early demise may have been no bad thing.

could ill afford