Diary loves real estate, which is useful given one’s role at the industry bible, and our head is easily turned by the unusual and downright bargainous.
So imagine our delight when this little beauty turned up in our inbox. The photo alone shows you that these 37 acres, nestled below Llangollen’s medieval Castell Dinas Bran (a ruined castle, but then you knew that) are indeed an area of outstanding natural beauty. But there’s more.
It is also an area of special scientific interest, because of its geology, acid and calcicolous grasslands and unusual plant species. Selling agent Fisher German says the land – mainly occupied by grazing sheep – will be of most interest to local farmers, historical groups, local community groups and conservationists. At £100,000 it may also be of interest to an EG Diary scribe dreaming of countryside grandeur.
Room with a Who
“Is it bigger on the inside?” That’s the question that Escape Hunt is bound to tire of, very quickly, after announcing its collaboration with BBC Studios on a Doctor Who themed escape room. Beginning in December at the Bristol Escape Hunt venue, Doctor Who – The Live Escape Game will be rolled out to Birmingham, Leeds, Oxford and Reading during 2019. Chief executive Richard Harpham says that “going on an Escape Hunt is all about stepping into and experiencing new worlds”, which is very much the modus operandi of the Doctor, and, as he puts it, “Doctor Who represents the best in British action adventure and has a loyal fanbase that spans all generations.” And indeed regenerations. It all sounds like a match made in heaven – or, at the very least, Gallifrey.
Polite relief
Diary gets sent a lot of press releases, and now and then one slips through the cracks. We’re always happy to receive a gentle nudge from the sender – especially when it is as well-mannered as the one received on behalf of online retailer Showerstoyou. However, such good grace is understandable when said missive reveals the country’s most polite home towns. After a survey of thousands of respondents, the company concludes that Worcester is the most polite, joined in the top five by Swansea, York, Wrexham and Newcastle. Toward the bottom are Birmingham, Gloucester, Belfast and Bristol, but the release ends: “Unsurprisingly, London came at the very bottom of the list.” Seems a jolly rude way of putting it – but they probably have a point.
Dig this
Something to add to your holiday reading list – Japanese Knotweed: Unearthing the Truth, written by expert Nicolas Seal. He promises to trace the spread of the “root of evil” and, via pages “beautifully illustrated with colour photographs and hand-drawn sketches” (of Japanese knotweed, one assumes), “takes readers on a journey back to the origins of the plant on the slopes of Mount Fuji in Japan”. All the way to a railway embankment in Wales, judging by a recent headline-making court dispute. There are already two five-star reviews on Amazon, one of which praises the book for its “happy ending”.
Hip-hipster hooray
Congratulations to the Collective. Alongside work from Facebook, IKEA and Volkswagen, the Collective Old Oak, its first co-living building, features in new V&A exhibition, “The future is now”. The Collective, believes the curator, is showing how design can push the boundaries of the way people live. But it is a business with boundaries. An advertising campaign running on the Tube appears to list them: “I don’t want to be pestered by some hipsters wanting to listen to whale sounds while having a group hug,” it reads. Surely this is not the Collective’s view of its own client base? Actually, on closer inspection, it’s a wryly quoted comment from the ever-enlightened MailOnline. That’s all right then.
Props for the wand
It takes a special kind of magic to get away with bringing out a prop during a podcast recording. Thankfully, Emma Humphreys of Charles Russell Speechlys managed to pull off the trick with aplomb during her visit to EG’s studio to record the latest in our Agenda series with Jonathan Seitler QC. The topic up for debate? “Rights to light are witchcraft.” Cue Emma wielding a surprising (though apparently effective) weapon in her legal armoury: a magic wand. Will she cast a spell strong enough to win Jonathan round to her point of view on rights to light?
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