Jack Ling

Nov 16, 2024 | thetimes.com | Jack Ling

We’re in the gardens of the Alcazar Palace and our guide has lost his audience’s attention. This is not because he has been upstaged by its sabre-arch fountains and skyscraping palms; instead everyone has noticed a peacock trying it on with a peahen and whipped out their phones to film them. Things look promising for him: his tail ignites in a firework-burst of colour and she tilts her head coquettishly. But then she struts off, leaving him with his feathers splayed.

Nov 16, 2024 | thetimes.com | Jack Ling

In her wisdom, Mother Nature pre-empted many inventions we ascribe to human ingenuity: birds came before aeroplanes, beavers before dams, bats before radar. And before we conceived of the hole-puncher, she came up with the clothes moth. These winged pests invade homes, mate with abandon and destroy clothes and furnishings — at least, the larvae do. Their depredations have affected about seven million Brits, according to a study by the pest control company Rentokil.