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12 January 2022

This England: Story of my life

This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain – has run in the NS since 1934.

By New Statesman

Story of my life

Usually you need an address to post a letter – but one that made its way to a County Antrim care worker just needed his life story instead.

Feargal Lynn, from Cushendall, said he was amazed to find an envelope that was scrawled with a 57-word mini-biography instead of a street address had found its way to him. The envelope begins “Feargal, lives across the road from the Spar”, and then refers to the names of his parents, where he lived after getting married, that he plays guitar and used to “run discos in the parochial hall”.

“There was enough there to know it was me,” he told BBC News Northern Ireland.

BBC News NI
(Daragh Brady)

A nutty diet

A squirrel that beat a bird-feeder designed to keep it out had to be rescued by the RSPCA after finding itself too fat to escape.

A homeowner in Hartlepool went to replenish the nuts in her bird-feeder and found the squirrel trapped by its metal bars. An RSPCA rescue officer used wire cutters to free it.

Yorkshire Post
(Michael Meadowcroft)

The apple doesn’t fall far…

Westwood Parish Council’s plans to chop down four apple trees because fallen fruit is a “tripping hazard” have been called “ludicrous” by residents.

The trees have sat in Westwood in Wiltshire for more than 30 years and nearly 200 people have signed a petition against the proposals.

Western Daily Press
(Roger Millard)

Each printed entry receives a £5 book token. Entries to comp@newstatesman.co.uk or on a postcard to This England.

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This article appears in the 12 Jan 2022 issue of the New Statesman, The age of economic rage