A former pupil has returned a school book 65 years after first borrowing it – and has paid a £1,500 “fine” as recompense.
Sir Jay Tidmarsh, 82, came across the long-forgotten copy of Ashenden by W Somerset Maughan as he cleared out his shelves.
The former businessman opened the cover and spotted the stamp of his old school inside, which he had left in 1949.
Sir Jay, who was the Lord Lieutenant of Bristol between 1996 and 2007, decided to return the book to Taunton School in Somerset alongside a £1,500 donation to the school library.
Nature lovers urged to vote for tree
Nature lovers are being urged to forget Eurovision and a possible EU referendum, and vote in the most important European poll of the year – for a tree.
Voting for the European Tree of the Year begins on Sunday, with England, Scotland and Wales taking part along with 11 other countries. England is represented by the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest Country Park, Nottinghamshire, a tree which is thought to be up to 1,000 years old and famous for its associations with Robin Hood.
Scotland’s nomination is the Lady’s Tree, a 100-year-old Scots pine at the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Loch of the Lowes reserve, near Dunkeld, Perthshire. It has been home to a famous osprey, Lady, for nearly a quarter of century, from where she has fledged 50 chicks.
Man injured in ejector seat prank
A group of pranksters constructed a home-made “ejector seat” with an airbag and videoed their friend being blown up on it – leaving him with a fractured spine, the Daily Mail has reported.
The men, from Haverhill in Suffolk, uploaded the video to YouTube, Facebook and LiveLeak and it has received more than 10,000 views.
The video shows Hari Farlie, 19, sitting on two tyres with an unreleased airbag in between them, which is attached by a wire to a nearby car engine. When one of the pranksters triggers the airbag, causing it to suddenly inflate, the teenager is violently thrown into the air and lands in a nearby bush.
Dog sinks his teeth into burglar
A family in northern Ohio said a man trying to break into their home left behind a trail of blood after meeting their dog at the front door in Port Clinton.
They were at home when their 11-year-old pit bull named Mamma heard something at the door and began growling. Tony Byrd Jr told The Blade newspaper in Toledo that he heard screaming coming from the front of the house, and came out to see the would-be burglar shutting the door and running to a car.
He said the dog is normally playful and that she must have sensed something about the man. Police asked hospitals to look out for anyone seeking treatment for dog bites.
There is a kangaroo in Austria...
A kangaroo is on the loose in snowy Austria, hopping his way toward dispelling a famous slogan.
“No kangaroos in Austria” T-shirts and souvenirs have been big sellers for years in the alpine nation, since some people confuse Austria with Australia.
Anton the kangaroo bounded away from his owner several weeks ago and has been living rough ever since, disappearing into forested land every time someone tries to capture him. He is expected to be fit enough and to have enough food to make it through the winter.
‘Pet’ lizard turns out to be crocodile
A baby caiman has found a new home at a Lithuanian zoo after its previous owner tried to sell it online, apparently realising that the pet reptile he was raising in his bathroom was not a harmless lizard.
Officials at Kaunas zoo said authorities confiscated the spectacled caiman from a student who had posted an online advertisement for a large lizard.
They said the student had kept it for several months but, stunned by how fast it was growing, decided to get rid of it. Lithuanian law prohibits raising dangerous animals at home.