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This fortnight is the Fostering network’s annual big push to raise the profile of fostering, and to show how foster care can transform children’s lives.  It also serves as the UK’s biggest foster carer recruitment campaign. The need is huge:  thousands of new foster families are needed every year to care for children in need. ...

If you can’t make an appointment, do you warn your surgery?  Too many of us forget to do so:  missed appointments with our GPs cost £216million a year – the equivalent of 2,325 full-time family doctors.  No wonder that NHS England is urging people to cancel rather than simply not show up. Sadly, more than...

When you drive, are you often swerving to avoid potholes?  You are not alone.  And the outlook is not good:  more than 40,000 miles of Britain’s road are at risk of crumbling within five years, a major potholes survey has found.  Council figures show that a fifth of the country’s roads are in ‘poor condition’. ...

All in the month of APRIL The mysterious, tragic death of Jill Dando Happy Birthday, Manchester City! The extraordinary success of Robinson Crusoe Where did the Easter Bunny and Easter eggs come from? Easter trivia quiz Old as taxes ** Editor:  We continue our column that looks at memorable dates in the month (this time,...

It was: 300 years ago, on 25th April 1719 that Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe was published. 125 years ago, on 16th April 1894 that Manchester City Football Club was founded.  It was a reorganisation of a church team that was established in 1880, initially as St Mark’s (West Gorton), and, from 1887, Ardwick Association...

Jill Dando, a popular TV presenter, newsreader, journalist and Crimewatch reporter, was shot dead on the doorstep of her house in Fulham 20 years ago this month, on 26th April 1999. It is still a mystery who killed her. Jill had been brought up as a Baptist, and her funeral took place at Clarence Park...

Manchester City Football Club, top of the pile in the Premier League last season and now in the running for more honours, was founded 125 years ago, on 16th April 1894 – as a reorganised church team. The original church team was established in 1880, initially by two churchwardens at St Mark’s (West Gorton), as...

It was 300 years ago, on 25th April 1719, that Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe was first published. The book is believed to be second only to the Bible in the number of translations made. The author was born Daniel Foe in London in 1860 and added the De to his name when he was...

 The Easter bunny is a gentle figure of folklore, who seems to have first come from the German Lutherans.  They depicted him as a rabbit who brought coloured Easter eggs to children.  The idea of an egg-giving hare went over to the US in the 18th century, when Protestant German immigrants in the Pennsylvania Dutch...

What was the largest ever Easter egg hunt? The most-ever entrants for an egg hunt competition was 12,773.  It was The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt, as part of World Record London, in London, UK in April 2012. What was the largest-ever decorated Easter egg? This was built in March 2008, by Freeport in Alcochete, Portugal. ...

As a new tax year gets underway, did you know that the men who collect our taxes are working in one of the oldest professions known?  Archaeological evidence dating from 1900 BC includes a clay tablet recording a tax for public works and a papyrus scroll which reveals that even 4,000 years ago, tax-payers had...

All in the month of MARCH The man who built London’s sewers The World Wide Web – 30 years on We are getting smaller Help a toad to cross the road  Give your garden birds a feast! World Water Day 22nd March Let’s celebrate English Tourism Week – and raise the profile of our church!...