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Curious Questions: Did the Tower of London menagerie provide the animals for London Zoo?
Wolves in the Tower of London and an elephant so well trained that Lord Byron wanted to adopt it as his butler — Martin Fone discovers the strange and terrifying history of the last of London's menageries, and how they helped establish what we'd recognise today as its first zoos.
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Curious Questions: Who invented the pneumatic tyre?
The names of Goodyear, Dunlop, and Michelin are familiar to motorists and cycling enthusiasts alike, but it is thanks to another inventor that we enjoy comfortable rides on inflated rubber tyres. Martin Fone tells a tale of an inventor's extraordinary ingenuity in creating a design that pre-dated its usefulness by several decades.
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Curious Questions: How is plant-based milk made?
Martin Fone takes a deep dive into the world of plant-based milks and discovers that the dairy alternatives have been around for a lot longer than we may have thought.
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Curious Questions: Why do cats have whiskers?
Martin Fone investigates the all-important role of feline whiskers—including how they contribute to enhancing the species' beauty.
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Curious Questions: Do earwigs go in your ears?
For centuries earwigs were believed to be adept at entering our ears so as to lay eggs in the brain, sending us mad — but as Ian Morton finds, no creature has been more unfairly condemned. He celebrates this curious creepy crawlie in all its glory.
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Curious Questions: Should you bring a snowdrop into the house?
Martin Fone delves into Britain's collective passion for Galanthus and looks at the folklore that surrounds it.
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Curious Questions: Who is Maris Piper?
The Maris Piper has become Britain's best-loved potato (hush, King Edward fans) — but where did it get its curious name? Eleanor Doughty investigates, while Toby Keel takes a look at where King Edward potatoes got their name.
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Curious Questions: Do tear-free onions actually stop you crying when you chop them?
Our intrepid correspondent Martin Fone has put the onions (and his eyes) to the test.
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Curious Question: Was St Valentine beaten to it by 1,000 years by the Welsh patron saint of love?
The arrival of St Dwynwen's day on January 25th prompts Martin Fone to recall the tale of a saint whose connection with romance and love predates St Valentine's by centuries.
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Curious Questions: Are parakeets a treasure or a curse?
Ring-necked parakeets have made themselves at home across London and beyond, but how did these birds come to swap tropical climes for our grey shores, asks Claire Jackson.
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Curious Questions: Why are Christmas cracker jokes so corny?
With the dust having settled on Christmas, there is only one question left to ponder: why are the jokes in crackers so intentionally bad? Martin Fone explains all.
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Boxing Day: What it is, why we celebrate it, and how 'Good King Wenceslas' earned his name on the Feast of Stephen
Better known as Boxing Day, the origins of St Stephen’s Day are sinister and macabre, especially for poor wrens, as Aeneas Dennison discovers.
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Curious Questions: Why do we kiss under the mistletoe?
Peaking at Christmas, regard for mistletoe is deeply rooted in myth and legend, finds Ian Morton – not to mention the age-old tradition of kissing underneath it.
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Curious Questions: Why is smell the most evocative of our senses, 'primal, unconscious and instantaneous, capable of stopping a person dead in their tracks'?
Tom Parker Bowles delves into the mysteries of our ability to smell — and ponders what is the best smell of all.
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Curious Questions: How are ice sculptures are made?
Medieval castles, thrones, dragons, curtains, serving dishes and cheeky luges can all be fashioned from ice, if you have the magic touch and can take the chill factor, discovers Jane Wheatley. Photographs by Richard Cannon.
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Curious Questions: Why do we send Christmas cards?
From the first Christmas card, born out of a lack of time, to today’s, adorned with crystals or wildflower seeds, the soft thud of festive post on the mat continues to spread good cheer, says Ben Lerwill.
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Curious Questions: Why do we have Advent calendars?
This week's Country Life Christmas special is an annual treat, with our special Advent calendar cover. But how did the Advent calendar phenomenon start? Martin Fone investigates.
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Jonathan Self: Was Eve's apple really a pear? Because I'm pretty sure it was
Jonathan Self points out that the Good Book doesn't actually specify what fruit Eve plucked from the Tree of Knowledge. Among other things.
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Curious Questions: Who invented the watering can?
You might take it for granted, but the watering can transformed the art and science of gardening — but who came up with its perfect design, which has been essentially unchanged for over a century? Martin Fone, author of More Curious Questions, investigates.
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Curious Questions: Where do conference pears get their name?
Conference pears bear one of the oddest and most incongruous names in the world of fruit and veg. Martin Fone, author of More Curious Questions, delves deeper to see how they came to be called what they are.
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Curious Questions: Why doesn't Stilton cheese come from Stilton?
Britain's most famous blue cheese takes its name from a picturesque Cambridgeshire village — yet it's made nowhere near the place, and not even in the same county. Martin Fone investigates this strange culinary anomaly.
