The oak, along with the rose, is one of the great symbols of England. Reports that they face decimation as a result of a bacterial condition called Acute Oak Decline, or AOD, which makes the trees bleed to death, therefore, are bound to prompt comparisons, however illogical, in the minds of some, with the state of the country itself.

The play hasn't started and you're already saying, with Marlowe's Mephistopheles, "Why this is hell, nor am I out of it." The smoke is billowing, the bells are tolling, the bagpipes are wailing and, down below in the pit, the heads of the groundlings are peeking through a black tarpaulin like the lost souls on Judgment Day.

For those of you who think May Day is a distress signal, May 1st is a marvellously hotchpotch day of festivities which combines traditions and superstitions from Paganism, Gaelic, Christianity and even chimney sweeps.

It might sound morbid to some that the menus from the Titanic should have been compiled into a book, including those from the infamous evening of 14 April 1912, when it really was last orders all round.

In the week that the death toll in Afghanistan surpassed the 255 fatalities in the Falklands, Terri Judd tells the story of two teenagers whose sacrifice belied their youth

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has a black goat slaughtered at his house almost every day to ward off "evil eyes" and protect him from "black magic", it emerged yesterday.

Three days out and the forecasters are guessing – and it's been proven so

Thorold Dickinson (91 mins), starring Anton Walbrook, Edith Evans, Yvonne Mitchell, Ronald Howard

Alarming new temperature forecasts show the need for urgent action

Bookmaker to oppose the trainer in eye-catching fashion at Cheltenham

Sunderland 0 Aston Villa 0 (Aet; Aston Villa win 3-1 on penalties)

American master of the horror story is finally told to rest in peace

Last Tuesday the relics of St Thérèse of Liseux, a long dead French Carmelite nun, sparked a flurry of excitement when they arrived in the UK for a four week tour.

The England women's football team captain on leading her squad to the European Championship final in Finland this week