— The Nelson Evening Mail, January 24 1907
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There is an injury called ‘tennis elbow of the heel’.

The rocks in the Sultanate of Oman are special.

Hitler only started all the Nazi bollocks because he was such a godawful painter.

There is no necessary connection between the poetic vocation on the one hand, and on the other exhibitionism, egoism, and licence.

Too much pudding will choak a dog.

In Tibetan there is no word for a mountain summit.

Stephen Merchant’s dad is stingy.

In June 2009 Edwin Rist stole 299 stuffed birds from the Natural History Museum in Tring, worth $1 million.

Francis Urquhart MP was a lieutenant in the Scots Guards.

Whether our first parent, Adam, had any pretensions to the art of pugilism, is involved in too great obscurity, at this remote period, for us to penetrate into with any possibility of success.

Only four US states require police officers to exhaust alternatives before resorting to deadly force.

The London International Palaeography Summer School offers over 25 courses in palaeography, codicology, and manuscript studies.

Samaritans answer 6000 calls a day in the UK. A further 15,000 phone-calls go unanswered.
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U. A. FANTHORPE was born in Kent.

BILLY COLLINS is the author of six books of poetry including… Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes.

IAN MCMILLAN is poet-in-residence for Barnsley FC.

TOMAS TRANSTRÖMER… suffered a serious stroke which left his speech impaired and his right side paralysed…. [He] continues to write, and play the piano – a number of pieces for the left hand having been composed specially for him.

OWEN SHEERS was born in Fiji.

VERNON SCANNELL was born in 1922. He studied for a year at Leeds University and served in the Gordon Highlanders in the Second World War in North Africa and the D-Day Normandy landings. He has had various jobs including teaching and a spell as a professional boxer.

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* Answering Back, ed. Carol Ann Duffy