This week's UK news: 1 July 2011
1 July 2011


Wedding hell

The funniest story in the UK this week is about a very rude email. Heidi Withers is going to marry Freddie Bourne in a castle later this year. Heidi went to stay with Freddie at his parents' house in April, and it sounds as though things did not go well.

Afterwards, Freddie's stepmother Carolyn sent an email to Heidi accusing her of having bad manners. She said that Heidi should have written her a thank-you card after her stay, that she should not have helped herself to more food or stayed in bed when everyone else had got up.

She also said that no-one got married in a castle unless they owned it and this was "celebrity" behaviour.

Heidi was apparently so surprised by the email that she forwarded it to close friends to ask their opinion. Unfortunately somebody sent it on and  the email has now been read by millions of people. By Friday, Heidi's father was in the papers saying that their private name for Carolyn Bourne was "Miss Fancy-Pants".

U2, Beyonce and Coldplay head UK's biggest music festival

The people who went to the Glastonbury music festival last weekend are still cheering about it as they wash the mud out of their clothes. Glastonbury is famous for lots of reasons, including the knee-deep mud the site gets if it rains.

This year, it rained a lot at the start of the festival. U2, which headlined the first night of the festival, played through heavy rain which they said made the stage too slippery to move. It dried up for the other headlining acts, Coldplay and Beyonce.

There will be no Glastonbury festival next year. It takes a year off every so often and has decided not to run a festival in 2012 because the London Olympics will make it harder and more expensive to hire the huge number of portable toilets needed.

Top toys for Christmas announced

It's six months till Christmas, when British children traditionally get parents. But Hamleys, the London toy store, has decided it is time to tell us what the top presents will be.

Top of the list is a sit-in inflatable Dalek, the scariest alien from family TV show Dr Who. This will cost parents GBP200.

Other toys on the list included a remote controlled flying shark and several inspired by the new films Cars 2 and Transformers. There is also a Justin Bieber singing doll.

Wimbledon gets interesting

The Wimbledon tennis tournament is all over the TV in the UK at the moment as one of our biggest sporting events. It's the only big tennis tournament in the world which is still played on grass courts, which makes the ball play differently.

It's been an interesting tournament so far: both Williams sisters went out on the same day, and the once-unbeatable Roger Federer was knocked out in the quarter-finals after being two sets up.

We are very keen for a British player to win. The last man to win the singles was Fred Perry in 1938, while Virginia Wade won the women's singles in 1977.

Our only hope this year is Andy Murray, who plays a semi-final match today against Rafael Nadal, the reigning champion. If he gets through to the final, most of the UK will be watching the game on TV this Sunday.

 

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