When looking into the future of supersonic flight one must first look at its history. More specifically, Concorde was the first supersonic airliner (a passenger airplane travelling faster than the speed of sound), launched in 1976. It could fly from London to New York in just three and a half hours, which halves the modern-day flight time of commonly used Airbus A330s. That halves the time of being squished into an uncomfortable seat, whilst wishing that the person in front of you would stop putting their seat down! So, if Concorde could reduce travel time so much, why don’t we use it today?

Anyone who knows me reasonably well knows I read – a lot. So, the finer details of read books get lost in the chaos quickly and, since all save the best don’t get reread, I’m left with a vague, overall impression to convey when someone asks me if I liked it. Nevertheless, I found myself picking up The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller again (and if I did so because it was required summer reading, well, that’s for me to know and for you to ignore for the sake of a narratively pleasing introduction). I read TSOA about two years ago and loved it – but now I can’t say the same. I still enjoyed the book but, having read some fantastic queer literature and classical adaptations since, some of TSOA’s shine has rubbed off, and I’m left with more complicated feelings towards it.

Spring is my favourite time of the year, without a doubt. Watching the world come back to life, leaf by leaf, is a truly magical experience. I will never (and I mean never) get tired of seeing new plants emerge from a seemingly dormant earth, and in celebration of that I thought I’d put together a ranking of my top ten spring flowers.