The Welsh harpist Georgia Ruth is a rare talent, able to transcend borders of language, style and age with apparent ease. At its simplest, Pines reinvigorates folk standards; but elsewhere, exploratory arrangements blending her harp with synth, guitar and ambient noises lend distinctive colour to her own material.

A south London tourist board is challenging the Lake District's claim to the name. So did it bring out the poet in John Walsh

Alarm over a sixth death from a strain of lethal bird flu never before seen in humans has led Chinese authorities to slaughter more than 20,000 birds at a poultry market in Shanghai.

Serves 4-6

PETA are campaigning to have pigeon racing outlawed, but I just can't get behind the idea that this is a barbaric sport

Title won prize despite competition from a book on Adolf Hitler's health, and a book on how to sharpen pencils

The animals that share our cities are finding ways to prosper from urban living that would leave their country cousins baffled

Forget the Oscars – the real contest this awards season is between pigeon lofts, tea cosies and pencil sharpeners.

What could possibly go wrong? You've seen our story about the Pope's attempt to launch a dove of peace into the air from the Vatican yesterday, only for a seagull to vigorously intercept its flight.

When he launched a white dove – a traditional symbol of peace – into the air in St Peter's Square, Pope Benedict XVI was probably not expecting that the effect would be immediate. And certainly he would not have expected the effect to be conflict.

RSPB’s ‘Big Garden  Birdwatch’ this weekend is expected to be most exciting for years

My earliest food memory… Collecting cherries, grapes, peaches and figs and eating them while they were still warm from the sun. My mother was Italian and I grew up just outside of Genoa. I remember being tiny, only about three years old, and being fascinated that when you snap a fig off the tree it oozes masses of sticky milk.

Historical advisor to Bletchley Park says Canadian historian's solution is 'just silly'

Good luck trying to find a partridge in a pear tree in Britain this Christmas, or even less likely — the true love's token of two turtledoves.