Thomas Coutts, aged 80, head of Coutts Bank in the late eighteenth century, with his second wife, the 37-year-old actress Harriot Mellon

Thomas Coutts, aged 80, head of Coutts Bank in the late eighteenth century, with his second wife, the 37-year-old actress Harriot Mellon. They married in 1815, and the old man lived for another 7 years. After his death, Lady Harriot married the future Duke of St Albans, who was 22 years her junior. Coutts Bank is still in business: it is now the eighth-oldest bank in the world, and it was recently in the news because its management resolved to close the accounts of the English politician Nigel Farage, quite literally for his support of Brexit and his friendship with Donald Trump

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free. So, here is the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Thomas Coutts, aged 80, head of Coutts Bank in the late eighteenth century, with his second wife, the 37-year-old actress Harriot Mellon

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s