Fun | Lost Library Books

Ever felt the burning shame of the words “I’m afraid this is overdue so… there’s a fine unfortunately…” Feel instantly better with our countdown of some of the most overdue books in British history.

• In at number five is The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collidi. Clearly the borrower learned nothing about lying well from reading the book, since he sheepishly returned it 63 years late to Rugby Library. Cleverly, he returned it during an eight-day amnesty on fines as it would have set him back more than £400 at a rate of 18p per day. 

• Climbing the ladder of shame at number four is Stanley Timber by Rupert Hughes, which was borrowed from Dunfermline Central Library. Again, during a fines amnesty during the COVID pandemic, the daughter of the dastardly borrower posted it back to the library, 73 years overdue, avoiding the £2,847 fine. 

• At number three, it’s our first school library crime. Edward Ewbank (stay behind after school please, Ewbank) borrowed The Poetry of Lord Byron from St Bees School in Cumbria  on 25 September 1911. It was returned 113 years overdue. Ewbank was sadly killed at the Battled of Ypres in 1916, so did not return the book himself, and avoided a detention. 

• Just missing out on the top spot is The Microscope and its Revelations by Willian B Carpenter, which was borrowed by Arthur Boycott of Hereford Cathedral School at some point between 1886 and 1894. In Boycott’s defence, clearly he read the book carefully as he went on to become an eminent naturalist and pathologist. His granddaughter returned the book to the school some 122-130 years later. The school generously waived the fine of £7,446. 

• And finally, at number one… a mysterious entry with no title, but known to be a German book about the Archbishop of Bremen, was borrowed by Robert Walpole from Sidney Sussex College’s library in Cambridge. It was discovered in the library of the Marquess of Cholmondley at Houghton Hall in Norfolk and returned to its rightful home between 287 and 288 years overdue. Despite not having a title of its own it is now the proud owner of the title Most Overdue Library Book in the Guinness Book of World Records. 

You can read a personal reflection on why we love a library by Frances Ambler in the February issue of The Simple Things.

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How To | Keep a Nature Diary

As signs of spring begin to appear, keeping a nature diary is a great way to log the changes in the air at this time of year

Unlike a standard diary, a nature diary needn’t be personal so it can feel much easier to get started, by simply observing what you see. There are many ways you can do it. If you’re feeling ambitious you can make a few notes each day but once a week is a good aim. Or you could make it something you sit down at once a month but really give it some time, and then end the year with a beautiful record in 12 parts. 

Similarly, consider where you want to observe nature. It makes sense to take the same walk each time you journal so that you can see the subtle changes at work, but if that might drive you mad, you could vary your nature walks and maybe even include maps to document what you saw and where. Certainly it makes sense to pick areas where you know there will be things of interest to note. A location near water or with a very ‘active’ hedge will always yield plenty of wildlife to spot, but you’ll be surprised at what forces its way up even through cracks in city paving slabs. Somehow, nature always finds a way. 

Now you’ve made the mental commitment, it’s time to think about what form your nature diary will take. Here are a few ideas.

1. A physical sketchbook in which you can draw and maybe shade with coloured pencils or paint with watercolours is a lovely keepsake. You can label the plants and wildlife you see or write a bit more by each illustration of your experience that day. 

2. If you like the idea of a notebook in your hand but aren’t an arty type, you could simply log your nature sightings in pencil or pen with a time and date. Maybe look your sightings up when you get home and add Latin names or interesting facts as you learn them.

3. Should you fancy getting really down and dirty with nature, your book could include natural dyes and pigments made from the plants and earth you happen upon. You can find out how to make natural dyes from nature with a quick internet search. 

4. Another visual sort of nature diary, but a little easier for those of us not blessed with a single artistic bone in our bodies, is a scrapbook. You can press and dry leaves and flowers, stick in seeds under sellotape and add pieces cut from maps. Then add labels in your very best handwriting.

5. Go digital and record your nature walks using photos. You could print out your favourites or simply upload them to a blog or Instagram account. 

Our blog today was inspired by a feature in our February issue in which we met Jenny Coats, whose nature diaries can be followed on her account @jenny.coats.created.

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Wellbeing | Eye Spy Glimmers

If winter is wintering a little too long for your liking, start spotting glimmers to get you
through until spring.

We went on a Glimmer Hunt in our February issue, noticing the small things that make us feel safe and calm. One of the things we loved most was the idea of compiling a Glimmer Library; a list in a notebook, on your phone or just in your head of the glimmers you have seen to refer back to when you need a boost. To help get you started with your Glimmer Library, we’ve collated a few glimmers here that you might like to spot this month…

• Snowdrops in full bloom

• Sticky buds on trees

• The smell of fresh lemons on pancakes

• The sound of rain on your roof when you’re cosy inside

• A perfectly formed spider web

• Sinking into a bed with new sheets on

• Tea in your favourite mug

• The crackle of logs on a fire

• Suddenly noticing how light the evenings are

• Winter birdsong

See how many of our Eye Spy Glimmers you can spot this month and add more of your own as you notice them to create your Glimmer Library. 

You can read more about seeking out glimmers in our feature by Lottie Storey in our February issues, which is in shops now. Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

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Tipple | Ginger & Maple Hot Toddy

Sweet, spicy and soothing, this cocktail also eases a sore throat and helps clear the sinuses. In fact it’s practically medicinal. Best enjoyed on a bracing walk by the sea

Makes 1 cup

3 slices of fresh ginger

1 ginger teabag

1 tsp maple syrup

Lemon slice

2 star anise

1 cinnamon stick

A shot of brandy or whisky (optional)

Place all the ingredients in a mug and top up with boiling water – use the cinnamon stick to stir it all together. If you plan to serve the hot toddy while out, make the ginger tea and add to a flask with the maple syrup and brandy or whisky, if using. To serve, pop the ginger, lemon slices, star anise and cinnamon sticks into each mug, pour over the ginger tea and enjoy.

This recipe is taken from our ‘gathering’ feature, which in our February issue is a bracing walk on the beach with hot drinks and snacks, followed by a make-ahead lunch at home. You’ll find all the recipes, including Granola Bars, White Bean Puree with Crunchy Topping, Mushroom Ragout, Gremolata and Jam Crumble Tart from page 6. The recipes are by Louise Gorrod and the photography by Emma Croman.

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Nature | Waterfowl Valentines

You dancing? You asking?… All good relationships start with a bit of flirting, even in the
natural world

Mute swans entwine together to form heart-shapes with their graceful necks, jackdaws preen each other, and great crested grebes dance.

Typically, only faithful for a season (although there are exceptions to the rule, as there often are in the animal kingdom), the great crested grebe (pictured above) is intense when it comes to first impressions. Meeting a potential mate, the birds rise up to mirror each other’s moves, shaking their rust-coloured ruff as they bow their heads. The crescendo of their dance is a charge towards each other, waving water weed, before coming together to hold the same piece of weed in their beaks.

And the common crane is a real flirt. Harsh, honking calls float across the Nene Washes in Cambridgeshire as the UK’s tallest birds show off their courtship choreography. Their head bobbing, wing stretching, and jumping is contagious – when one pair start, others quickly join in, the flock turning into a flash mob of long legs, red crests and spilling tail feathers.

The extract above is taken from our feature ‘Love is All Around’ by Jeni Bell, from our February issue. Read more love stories from the animal kingdom from page 50.

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Nest | 5 Famous Chairs

Photography by @mycambridgefairytale

One should never underestimate the value of an excellent chair. Here, we look at a few chairs that have made history…

1. King Edward’s Chair

Used for every English monarch’s coronation (other than Mary II since she was crowned jointly with William II) since the 14th century this is quite a place to rest one’s royal bottom. Edward I commissioned the grand wooden throne to house the Stone of Scone (on which Scottish monarchs were crowned) after he stole it from Scone Abbey in Perthshire in 1296. It was rightfully returned to Scotland in 1996. One less thing for His Majesty to dust, too. It was originally gilded and covered with glass mosaic. Four gilt lions were added as feet in the 16th century. Today, it basically looks very old and very wooden but you can still just about make out animals and foliage depicted on the back. 

2. Christine Keeler’s chair

The most iconic image of the Profumo Affair, which brought down Harold Macmillan’s government, is of Christine Keeler sitting astride a back-to-front chair, naked, and looking slightly over the whole thing, we might add. But the chair is as much the star of the photo as Keeler. It’s an imitation of a design by Danish artist Arne Jacobsen, who later created the iconic ‘Egg’ chair, too. Keeler’s chair was a cheap copy of Jacobsen’s Model 3107, bought from Heal’s in London. The photo caused national outrage… imagine if he hadn’t turned the chair back to front…

3. The Mastermind Chair

Striking fear into the hearts of quiz-goers for decades, the black ‘soft pad lounge chair’ was designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1969. Two of them were originally bought for the first 25-year run of Mastermind and they would travel the country with the show by lorry. In 1979 one of them was held to ransom by students of the University of Ulster to demand money for their Cambodia Relief Fund. The chair was eventually negotiated to freedom without the exchange of any cash, 

4. Roald Dahl’s Writing Chair

Seated in his large, brown wingback chair, which once belonged to his mother, Dahl created entire worlds that have enchanted generations of children ever since. The chair was the basis of a very particular writing set up. Dahl wrote for two hours in the morning and two in the afternoon. Having got comfy, Dahl would prop a rolled up piece of corrugated cardboard on his knees, and on top of that he rested a board he’d made himself, covered in green baize. He would then sharpen six Dixon Ticonderoga pencils and write on yellow legal paper. The chair, in its now threadbare state, can be seen in the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden.  

5. Blofeld’s Swivel Chair

Which of us can honestly say we haven’t at some point sat in an office chair and swung it round dramatically, while stroking a pretend fluffy white cat just for laughs? We have the G Plan 6250 to thank for that. Arguably the most famous chair ever to appear on the silver screen, and housing Blofeld’s behind admirably, this large, black, iconic winged design has always been in its Villain Era. As well as being one of the stars of You Only Live Twice (with Donald Pleasance playing Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the chair has also made guest appearances in Farenheit 451 and the Beatles’ film Help!

This blog was inspired by our February issue’s My Place pages, which this month looks at ‘cosy spots to sit’, including the very comfy looking armchair above which belongs to Paola Salvaire.

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Cake | Chocolate Coconut Squares

When only chocolate will do, bake these moist, coconutty squares for an oh-so-satisfying
cocoa nibble

Serves 9

150g coconut oil, melted and cooled

200g soft light brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract or essence

60g plain flour

45g self-raising flour

30g cocoa powder

40g desiccated coconut, plus extra

for scattering (optional)

For the topping:

100g dark chocolate

100g soft, but not liquid, coconut oil

1 Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4. Using a little of the coconut oil, grease and line a 20x20cm tin.

2 Place the rest of the coconut oil, the sugar, egg and vanilla extract in a bowl and stir until combined.

3 Whisk the flours and cocoa in a separate bowl to remove any lumps, then stir in the desiccated coconut. Make a well in the centre, pour in the coconut oil mixture and stir until completely combined.

4 Spread the mixture evenly into the lined tin and bake for 25–30 mins, or until just firm. Leave to cool in the tin.

5 Meanwhile, melt the dark chocolate in the cooling oven, then beat in the soft coconut oil until it’s a thick icing.

6 When the base is cool, spread over the icing and leave to set. Cut into 9 squares and scatter extra coconut on top, if you like. This will keep for up to five days in an airtight container.

Cook’s note: Coconut oil can be used like-for-like to replace butter in recipes. Depending on what temperature you store it at, it can also be solid in the same way as butter. The more refined coconut oil doesn’t have a distinctive coconut flavour and so works well in dishes that you don’t want to taste of coconut.

This recipe from our February issue is taken from Every Last Bite by Rosie Sykes (Quadrille). Photography: Patricia Niven

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Make | A Jam Jar Garden

You’ll need:
Glass Mason jars or ordinary jam jars; a bag of hyacinth bulbs; a bag of gravel.

To make:
1 Give the jars a good clean and dry, then add gravel up to the shoulders of each jar.

2 Fill with water to above the top of the gravel in each one and place a hyacinth bulb on top of each jar.

3 You’ll need to keep the water topped up as the bulbs sprout. Just gently move the bulbs to one side and top up with a jug.

4 Gather all your hyacinth jars together on an old tray, in a small wooden crate or any other receptacle to make a centrepiece for a dining or coffee table, or simply line them up on a windowsill, or anywhere that catches your eye and create your own indoor jam jar garden to remind you that spring is just around the corner.

This is just one of the ideas for things to note and notice, plan and do from our Almanac pages. Find more seasonal inspiration in the February issue, in shops now or available to order from our online store.

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Recipe | Pomegranate Molasses

Homemade pomegranate molasses is both sweet and sour – drizzle it over bread and cheese or use it in dips, dressings and even drinks or desserts. Its vibrant colour will help give you a lift at the dog end of winter, too

Makes around 280ml

4-6 large pomegranates (juiced to produce 1 ltr pomegranate juice)
125g sugar
1 large lemon (juiced, to produce around 60ml lemon juice)

1 Peel the pomegranates and remove as much pith and membrane as you can, leaving the seeds intact.

2 Put the seeds in a large sealable plastic bag – you may have to do this in batches. Use a rolling pin to roll over the seeds, releasing their juices.

3 Cut a tiny hole in the corner of the bag and pour the juice into a saucepan. Squeezing the leftover seeds will release the last few drops.

4 Add the sugar and lemon juice to the saucepan and place over a medium-high heat. Once the juice starts to boil, reduce the heat and simmer. You should see the liquid boiling very gently in the middle. Let the mixture simmer for 45 mins, stirring occasionally to make sure that the juice doesn’t catch.

5 Reduce the heat very slightly and let it simmer gently for another 15 mins. To see if it’s ready, dip a spoon in. If it coats the spoon, it’s done.

6 Remove from the heat and leave the mixture to cool in the pan for 30 mins, then pour into a sterilised jar. The mixture will still be runny at this point but will thicken as it cools.

Cook’s note: You can store the molasses in the fridge for up to 6 months.

A project for while your molasses cools…

Watercolour painting is a quietly mindful activity that you can do while waiting for the oven timer to ping. Shed any thoughts of proficiency, this is not meant to be a masterpiece. The point is to simply look deeply and try to recreate what you see.

You will need:
Pomegranate, cut or torn in half
Watercolour paper
Pencil
Rubber
Paints
Palette or old plate
Brushes
Jar of water, for rinsing brushes

1 Arrange your pomegranate sections and take time to really look at it – its shapes, colours and textures, and how the light falls on the fruit. Notice what you’re feeling – perhaps you’re excited or nervous or calm.

2 With your pencil, sketch out the shape of the fruit – its form and the detailing around the seeds and their membranes. Use the rubber to remove any sections you’re not happy with and play around until you’ve got something you’d like to paint.

3 On your palette or plate, combine the colours you want to use. Adding a tiny amount of blue or yellow to pinks and reds can add depth to the colours in ready-mixed paints.

4 Begin to transfer the paint from palette to paper, building up in layers to create depth. With watercolours, you can continue to layer up when the paint is wet if you want to combine colours or wait until each area is dry if you don’t want colours merging, such as the yellow of the pith. Allow your painting to dry fully before putting it somewhere for you to admire.

This recipe and project are taken from our new series, Kitchen Therapy in which we celebrate spending time at home, cooking and baking, as a form of self care. Find more recipes and ideas for the end of winter in the February issue, which is out now. The recipes and makes are by Lottie Storey and the photography is by Kym Grimshaw.

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Competition | Win a Year of Scented Blooms Delivered to your Door

Gift a loved one (or yourself) with fabulous flowers for an entire year, thanks to Scilly Flowers

Just imagine the smile on the face of someone who receives a gift box of scented flowers through the post on a dull mid-winter day. Enter our competition and you could win 12 boxes of scented narcissi, worth over £250, to send to your friends – however, we won’t judge if you choose to enjoy a few yourself.

Grown on the picturesque Isles of Scilly, off the Cornish coast, the ‘Tazetta’ narcissi – a scented cousin of the daffodil – flourish in sheltered fields from October to Easter. The Isles of Scilly are unique in being able to grow flowers outdoors throughout winter without the need for any additional heat or light. As the flowers are delivered directly from where they’re grown, they have a far lower carbon footprint than those grown in heated glasshouses or flown in from further afield. It also makes the scented narcissi a thoughtful gift to brighten a loved one’s day, whether it’s Valentine’s Day, Mother’s
Day or just to let a friend or family member know that you’re thinking about them.

Once the scented narcissi season comes to an end in late spring, owners of Scilly Flowers, Zoe and Ben Julian, and their loyal team of flower pickers at Churchtown Farm on the island of St Martin’s, turn their attention to the summer crop of scented pinks. Similar to carnations, pinks have a subtle hue and a delicate fragrance. On an island, fresh water is a particularly precious resource, and the pinks are grown in coir-filled tubs that reduce the need for irrigation. Once on display, these blooms will brighten any room and are a reminder of the joy that is home-grown in Scilly.

For more info, visit scillyflowers.co.uk or follow on Instagram: @scillyflowers.

How to enter

For a chance to win a year’s supply of scented flowers (12 boxes of flowers to share over the year), enter by clicking on the button below and answering the following question by the closing date: 12 March 2025.

Q: Tazetta narcissi are a cousin of which flower?

Terms and conditions

The competition closes at 11.59pm on 12 March 2025. One winner will be selected at random from all correct entries received and notified soon after. Subject to availability. The winner cannot transfer the prize or swap it for cash. Details of our full terms and conditions are on p125 and online at: icebergpress.co.uk/comprules.