Curious Questions: Was Captain Webb the first to swim the channel?
Captain Matthew Webb was famously the first man to successfully swim the English Channel — or was he? Martin Fone investigates.
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Curious Questions: When and why did we start bathing in the sea?
Despite the British love of seafaring, voluntarily taking a dip in the sea was almost unheard of until relatively recently. Martin Fone takes a look at how a bit of canny marketing helped change that.
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Curious Questions: What is the world's oldest extant rowing race?
The annual Oxford v Cambridge Boat Race has been a fixture on the sporting calendar of Britain for almost two centuries — but there is a far older example still going, Doggett's Coat and Badge, which boasts an unbroken record of winners for more than three centuries examples. Martin Fone explains.
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Curious Questions: Which came first — the plastic flower pot or the garden centre?
Martin Fone takes a look at the curiously intriguing tale of the evolution of nurseries in Britain.
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Curious Questions: How did the strawberry become the ultimate summer fruit?
Martin Fone tells a tale of fruit, sensuality and espionage as he digs in to the tale of the strawberry we know and love.
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Best summer gins for sipping on long, hot afternoons (or for drowning your sorrows on cold, rainy ones)
From floral and fruity gins to wines that you can drink without a pang of conscience, we've rounded up some of the best new drinks on the market, perfect for an al fresco drink as the height of summer approaches.
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Curious Questions: When did the first passenger jet take off?
'Nowadays we travel to all parts of the globe, often within a day and often without changing planes,' says Martin Fone, as he muses on the birth of commercial air travel exactly 70 years ago.
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Curious Questions: Did a mining disaster lead to the invention of Father’s Day?
This weekend marks Father's Day across the world, prompting Martin Fone to take a look at the origins of this day of celebration. The tale he discovered is not what he expected....
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Curious Questions: Who do we say that cats have nine lives?
Martin Fone set off to investigate the origins of the saying that cats have nine lives. In the process he discovered something less supernatural, but no less incredible.
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Curious Questions: Why were ferns considered magical?
Martin Fone considers the beautiful and ancient fern, once commonly held to have mysterious properties.
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Curious Questions: What is a jubilee?
The celebration of HM's Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee is imminent — but what is a jubilee, and where does this strange word come from? Martin Fone investigates.
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Curious Questions: What is a crinkle-crankle wall?
The mysterious term crinkle-crankle wall is something you'll see scattered in to architecture books and even property listings. But what are crinkle-crankle walls? Why are they shaped as they are? And who first came up with the idea? Martin Fone explains all.
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Curious Questions: Who invented the Ploughman's Lunch?
Unimaginable as it seems in the era of the gastropub, in the relatively recent past the ploughman's lunch was the only food served at most British pubs — and it was so much a part of agricultural labourers' lives that some even went to court for their right to bread, cheese and pickles. Martin Fone takes a look at the curious tale of the ploughman's lunch.
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Curious Question: Why was the tomato considered to be poisonous?
Martin Fone takes a look at the history of one of our mealtime staples, from its first introduction into Europe in the early 16th century as an exotic plant, to how it ended up on our plates.
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Curious Questions: Are Mothering Sunday and Mother's Day the same thing?
Mothering Sunday and Mother's Day have distinct meanings, as Martin Fone explains in the latest of his Curious Questions.
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Curious Questions: Did the Tower of London menagerie provide the animals for London Zoo?
Wolves in the Tower of London and an elephant so well trained that Lord Byron wanted to adopt it as his butler — Martin Fone discovers the strange and terrifying history of the last of London's menageries, and how they helped establish what we'd recognise today as its first zoos.
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The best gins for Mother's Day
What better for Mother's Day than a bottle of 'Mother's Ruin'? We've selected some of the finest gins on the market which are sure to give your long-suffering parent a treat.
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Curious Questions: Who invented the pneumatic tyre?
The names of Goodyear, Dunlop, and Michelin are familiar to motorists and cycling enthusiasts alike, but it is thanks to another inventor that we enjoy comfortable rides on inflated rubber tyres. Martin Fone tells a tale of an inventor's extraordinary ingenuity in creating a design that pre-dated its usefulness by several decades.
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Curious Questions: How is plant-based milk made?
Martin Fone takes a deep dive into the world of plant-based milks and discovers that the dairy alternatives have been around for a lot longer than we may have thought.
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Curious Questions: Why do cats have whiskers?
Martin Fone investigates the all-important role of feline whiskers—including how they contribute to enhancing the species' beauty.
