The Joy of Six 1054

Jonathan Meades reviews Tina Brown's book on the royal family: "They are out of their depth. The prurient, hypocritical red-top mentality leaves them incredulous and perplexed. They would rather not touch. When they do touch they find they are tiny pions in the dripping maw of cannibalistic brutes."

"Emanuel Gomes was an outsourced Ministry of Justice cleaner. He died after working for five days with suspected COVID symptoms in a near-empty office, because he believed he could not afford to lose income." Caroline Molloy on the government's treatment of low-paid staff.

Tideline Art goes mudlarking in New York, finds an ID tag and opens up a chilling account of the fear of nuclear attack.

"While many mid-20th century writers have fallen in and out of fashion over the past seventy years, Pym has always enjoyed the ardent support of various literary luminaries, including Philip Larkin, Lord David Cecil, Jilly Cooper, Anne Tyler and Alexander McCall Smith - even during the wilderness years." JacquiWine's Journal welcomes Virago Press's glamorous makeover of Barbara Pym.

"Captain Tyler returned in mid-April 1874 for a second inspection. This time four 40 ton engines passed over the viaduct at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour. Although there seemed little in the way of vibrations, when he inspected the upright timbers at ground level, he found many were rotten. Even those which 'appeared sound to the eye, when chopped by the axe, displayed a rotten or hollow core'." Huddersfield Exposed looks at the history of Denby Dale Viaduct.

Tish Farrell goes walking in the Stiperstones.