In 1919 the Commonwealth Government of Australia offered a prize for the first person to fly from Great Britain to Australia.  The prize could only be claimed if the journey was completed in less than 30 days.  Of the six teams that took up the challenge only one made it home.  The journey took 28 days and involved 14 stops … Read More

“He gave his life for strangers. He must have known that he didn’t really have a chance.”  So said the brother of Arnaud Beltrame, the French police officer who helped end the supermarket siege in Trèbes on 23rd March 2018, by substituting himself for one of the hostages.  Once again we have seen the remarkable capacity of human beings to … Read More

The 1999 book ‘First, Break All the Rules’ with the catchy subtitle ‘What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently’ explored how to stop good employees from leaving a company.  Based on over 80,000 interviews with managers collected over 25 years, the answer boiled down to this: treat employees as individuals, focus on strengths and talents rather than trying to fix … Read More

I’ll always remember the day of my daughter’s first solo walk to primary school.  She had been asking for weeks, but we, imagining all sorts of terrible dangers along the way – it was after all a half mile walk along one road at the same time as many other parents and children – had resisted.  But she wouldn’t let … Read More

Disappointing news this week for lovers of Chinese takeaway food, as in the UK the campaign group Action on Salt announced that its survey of 150 dishes revealed that most were very high in salt, and that a single main course dish might contain half the recommended adult daily allowance of 6g.  Add in some rice and a couple of … Read More

‘You could be the greatest, you could be the best, you can be the King Kong banging on your chest.’  With those whispered words from the Irish band The Script, 19-year-old Olympic skier Millie Knight stepped into the gate and pushed off in her quest to become champion at the 2017 World Alpine Skiing Championships.  Flying down the mountain at … Read More

Until recently ‘cherry-picking’ was a phrase I only ever heard occasionally.  But since the UK started negotiating its exit from the European Union it’s become a phrase in almost daily use.  As the UK government speaks regularly about a ‘bespoke deal’, the EU responds by insisting that the UK will not be allowed to make that deal by ‘cherry-picking’ the … Read More

On the first day of Spring 2018 some 13,000 claims were made to one UK car insurer following a spate of accidents.  Unseasonably cold weather had gripped the country, much of which was blanketed with snow.  Weather warnings had been issued for days in advance, including the highest level of alert meaning that there was danger to life.  Police forces … Read More

On a typical day there are some 76,000 flights across the United States of America.  But on 14th September 2001 there was just one aircraft in the air.  All other planes had been grounded in the aftermath of the appalling attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.  But who was on that one flight?  The President?  The Director … Read More