Shakespeare. Butter wouldn’t melt?

A new report has claimed that the playwright William Shakespeare could have been a tax dodger and a “ruthless businessman”.

Researchers from Aberystwyth University have been looking into the Bard’s life as one of the biggest landowners in Warwickshire and discovered that he didn’t always uphold the morals put forth in his plays.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, Jayne Archer, a researcher in Renaissance literature at the Welsh university, commented: “There was another side to Shakespeare besides the brilliant playwright — as a ruthless businessman who did all he could to avoid taxes, maximize profits at others’ expense and exploit the vulnerable – while also writing plays about their plight to entertain them.”

One particularly harsh notion is the accusation that Shakespeare exploited the famine that gripped the nation during his lifetime. The academics claimed that he “stored grain, malt and barely for resale at inflated prices to neighbors and local tradesmen”. The profits from these sales were reportedly funneled into further land purchases.

While doing his best to profit from others’ hunger, it appears that this dark side of the Bard was also doing everything he could to “avoid taxes, maximize profits at others’ expense and exploit the vulnerable”.

His approach may have been dubious, but it did allow Shakespeare to retire after a working life of just 24 years, suggesting his efforts were indeed profitable, however questionable his morals were.

The bread roll in question

A family in Surrey has kept a bread roll for over 120 years as an heirloom linking them to a relative who was imprisoned over a century ago.

Joseph Harrison was released from Wandsworth Gaol back in 1889 after a short time behind bars. He was locked up after taking part in the country’s anti-compulsory vaccination programme and later failing to pay a fine for not inoculating his daughters against smallpox.

The bread roll in question formed part of his breakfast on the last day of his incarceration. Mr Harrison chose to keep it as a reminder of his prison time and dried and preserved the roll in a paper bag kept in the chimney breast of his home.

Now his 92-year-old grandson, Terry O’Kelly from Abinger in Surrey, has come forward to share his story of one of the world’s oldest pieces of bread. Speaking to the Leatherhead Advertiser, Mr O’Kelly said: “I remember when I was a kid, if other members of the family were coming over, he would get up there and get this brown paper bag out and show it to them.

“He was very proud of it, although he never spoke about his time in prison. All his life he was involved with the anti-vaccination campaign.”

The existence of the bread roll re-emerged when its original owner’s grandson showed the item to Liz Hamilton, the Abinger parish magazine editor who is also the current inhabitant of Mr Harrison’s former home.

Ms Hamilton explained that the bread looks just like “a piece of stale bread from a week or two ago”, adding that it’s hard to believe its true age.

Numb bum anyone?

Sweden’s bizarre pole-sitting competition has come to a close for another year. The event saw a group of contestants struggle through a 48-hour period sat on top of blocks of ice in freezing conditions.

It all came to an end this weekend after two women and four men battled it out to see who could sit on an 8.25 foot high block of ice for the longest.

Temperatures dropped to below -18 degrees Fahrenheit during the competition, which was held in the Swedish town of Vilhelmnina after a local resident took part in a similar thing in Russia and decided to bring it back to their hometown.

Annica Anderson, the organiser of the Swedish event, explained that ever since then the competition has been held annually every since for the past dozen years.

Competitors aren’t just in it for the glory or the frostbitten bums, however. The individuals who manage to sit on top of their ice blocks for the longest are in with a chance of taking home a share of a £1,960 prize. They were allowed down for toilet breaks every other hour, but according to contestants, the most frustrating thing about the event is dealing with the boredom.