This week's UK news: 10 April 2015
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10 April 2015


British author has bestselling US book

The book which is selling most copies on Amazon in the US is not what you might think. It is a book of pictures for adults to colour themselves with pens or pencils.

Johanna Bamford's book Enchanted Forest contains lots of pages of very detailed pictures. So far it has sold around 226,000 copies. Her last book, Secret Garden, has sold 1.4m copies around the world since it was published in 2013. Her publisher says "It's been crazy. We knew the books would be beautiful but we didn't realise it would be such a phenomenal success."

Music makes your food taste better

Oxford University Professor Charles Spence says that if you play the right music with food, it will taste better. Experiments show that people connect certain tastes and certain sounds. So sourness is high notes, sweetness is richer and more rounded sounds. But the team are having trouble finding the music which goes with salty tastes.

Another experiment has shown that colour can also affect taste. Red wine drunk in red light stated fruitier, and green light can make people more aware of sour tastes.

British adventurer joins one of the world's toughest races

Sir Ranulph Fiennes is 71 years old. He has had two heart attacks, heart surgery and has cut off parts of his own fingers when he got frostbite. He is an explorer who has been up Mount Everest, across Antarctica, discovered a lost city, travelled up the Nile and tried to walk alone to the North Pole.

Now he's trying to be the oldest person from the UK to take part in the Marathon des Sables, which is called the toughest race on Earth. It is a 156-mile run across the Sahara desert. Sir Randolph says he does not want to be rescued by helicopter or camel. He plans to finish the race.

GBP 200m jewel theft

Up to GBP 200m worth of jewellery has been stolen in a daring theft in London. The jewels were stolen from safe boxes stored in a special high-security building in the city's jewellery area. The thieves broke in during a public holiday weekend using special equipment and have opened around 70 safe boxes of valuables. 

The police have not said how much was stolen, but a former police officer has estimated that it could be up to GBP 200m.
 

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