WW2 RAF Ace Billy Drake’s medals go on sale

A group of medals awarded to RAF squadron leader Billy Drake heads the sale of military medals at Bonhams on 12 March in Knightsbridge.

The medals, including a World War II DSO and DFC and bar group, are estimated to sell for  £20,000-£30,000.

Billy Drake was born in London on 20 December 1917 to an English father and Australian mother. He was educated in Switzerland after several schools in England failed to cope with his lively temperament. 

Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum at the British Museum

Without Mount Vesuvius, we would know far less about life in the Roman world than we do. What is good fortune for today’s archeologists, historians and scholars, though, was rather less lucky for the citizens of the two towns that lay at the base of the mountain.

It is a point that is made clearly at the British Museum’s major spring exhibition: Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum. 

The erruption of AD79 that brought with it disaster served also to preserve an intimate snapshot of Roman life, from election posters, to portraits, to a carbonised loaf of bread complete with the name of the slave who made it.

Ageing cars to be banned from Paris, says mayor

The writing may be on the wall for the iconic 2CV or Renault Five rattling through the streets of Paris.

Socialist mayor Bertrand Delanoë intends to outlaw (by September 2014) the use of cars and utility vehicles more than 17 years old and lorries or buses more than 18 years old.

Ash dieback taking hold in UK, warn experts

A summit on the tree disease Chalara fraxinea, also known as ash dieback, took place in 7 November.

The meeting, chaired by environment secretary Owen Paterson and attended by Government officials, tree experts and conservation NGOs, considered the findings of a nationwide survey carried out by Forestry Commission staff and agreed a course of action.