Edinburgh:
In January, a homeless man from Edinburgh thanked the tourist who flew him to Sweden for Christmas for her “incredible act of kindness”. Jimmy Fraser, 54, was begging in the city when Annis Lindkvist and her sister Emma stopped to ask him for directions. They got talking and struck up a friend-ship; after Annis returned home, she invited him to stay with her and her family over Christmas – and paid for his flights and passport. They took him to an ice hockey match and Christmas markets, and even asked him back for Easter. “It was a beautiful experience,” he said.
North Yorkshire Moors:
A pine marten was sighted in Yorkshire for the first time in 35 years this summer. The cat-sized animals were once the second most common carnivores in Britain; today, they are the second rarest (after wildcats). For the past four years, the Yorkshire Pine Marten Project has set up wildlife cameras around the North York Moors and, in August, it finally caught one of the pine martens on film.
Leeds:
Scores of celebrities sent birthday wishes, and messages of support, to an eight-year-old from Leeds who was being bullied at school. Ollie Hope-Smith was having such a bad time he didn’t even want to celebrate his ninth birthday in July – at which point, his father turned to Twitter and asked if someone famous might send him a message, to “tell him he does mean something”. Astronaut Tim Peake, actor Russell Crowe, grime star Stormzy and DJ Sarah Cox were among those who answered the call.
London:
A police officer who ran the London Marathon in a gorilla suit in 2016 decided to do that “little bit more” this year. Tom Harrison donned his gorilla suit again, but instead of running, he crawled the 26-mile course – a feat that took him six days. In the process, he raised £26,000 for the charity The Gorilla Organisation. The 41-year-old spent up to 12 hours a day on his hands and knees, or hands and feet. “I’ll be glad to get the costume washed,” he said, when he finally reached the finish line. “I think I’ve started to smell a bit like a gorilla.”
Berwickshire:
Climate change has a silver lining for Scottish lepidopterists, who are finding that a growing number of butterfly species are moving north. The endangered white-letter hairstreak was recently seen in Berwickshire – its first sighting in Scotland since 1884. The comma and the Essex skipper have recently crossed the border for the first time, while others have moved north within Scotland and into the Highlands. “Climate change is a double-edged sword, but it’s an exciting time to be in the Scottish borders,” said conservationist Paul Kirkland.
Nottingham:
An 11-year-old from Nottingham became the youngest person in the world to conduct a 75-piece orchestra in April. Matthew Smith conducted the Nottingham Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in the overture to Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus at a charity concert. Matthew – who plays violin to Grade 5 standard, as well as guitar, drums, piano and viola – first heard the piece when he was seven, and has since memorised it. “There aren’t many children who [can] conduct a 75-strong orchestra from memory,” said Derek Williams, the NSO’s main conductor and Matthew’s mentor. “It’s a really incredible thing to witness.”
Bristol:
A cyclist from Bristol got her revenge on a thief by stealing back her own bike in an audacious sting operation. Just hours after her £800 bike was taken, Jenni Morton-Humphreys, 30, put out an alert online, and discovered that the bike was already for sale on Facebook. The police declined to help, so – via an intermediary – she arranged to meet the seller. At the rendezvous, on a street corner, she asked if she could test the bike, and handed the seller a defunct set of keys as security; then she quickly pedalled away.
West Sussex:
One of the select group of female Second World War Spitfire pilots celebrated her 100th birthday by taking to the skies once again. Mary Ellis spent 15 minutes at the controls of a Spitfire in February as it swooped over West Sussex. “Wizard, this is wizard!” she yelled over the intercom. As one of just 168 women in the Air Transport Auxiliary (the “Ata Girls”), Mrs Ellis clocked up 1,100 hours of flying time, delivering hundreds of Spitfires, Hurricanes, Wellington bombers and other planes to their bases. After the War, she worked as a commercial pilot, and became managing director of Sandown Airport on the Isle of Wight.
And some remarkable achievements from elsewhere
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In a scene reminiscent of Pixar’s animated film Up, a British adventurer floated 1.5 miles into the sky in October, dangling from 100 helium balloons. Tom Morgan, 38, sat in a camping chair for his 16-mile flight, over a stretch of desert outside Johannesburg. “It was a fairly indescribable feeling, wafting across Africa on a camping chair,” said Morgan. “Sort of peaceful and terrifying in equal measure.”
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An Indian climber became the first woman to scale Mount Everest twice in five days. Anshu Jamsenpa, 37, climbed it first on 16 May, then again on 21 May – beating the previous record for a double ascent by a woman by two days.
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In the US, it emerged that a billionaire philanthropist had made good on his promise to give away almost his entire fortune. Charles F. Feeney, 86, made his final grant – $7m to Cornell University – at the end of 2016, bringing his lifetime donations to $8bn, and leaving him with $2m. His largesse (kept secret for years) has benefited everything from Aids charities in Africa to hospitals in Vietnam.
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In January, a 105-year-old Frenchman cycled 14 miles in an hour, setting a new world record in the over 105s category. Robert Marchand, who is just 5ft-tall, completed 92 laps of a velodrome in Paris, cheered on by hundreds of supporters.
