WORCESTER’S Mr History Paul Harding is a man of boundless energy and knowledge.

More than any other individuals, he and his partner Helen Lee have made the past more palatable for thousands of people in the city and beyond.

Their Discover History group works tirelessly to bring alive everything from the Bronze Age to the recent past.

I see Paul periodically and on one occasion recently we started discussing the dye that has traditionally given the British redcoat soldier’s tunic that characteristic hue.

I said that I’d heard someone claim that the vivid red came from cochineal but thought it was hardly possible to procure that many beetles for so Herculean a task.

Paul maintained the colouring was extracted from a plant called madder, which grows in profusion across Britain and Europe. I’ve never heard of it – perhaps it has a more common or alternative name.

If anyone has any thoughts on this, then perhaps they might write in.

*SUMMER festivals have been officially acknowledged as being the main engine of tourism in Worcester. The highlight of these events is the annual summer bash organised by WorcesterLive, which is now the umbrella for a number of smaller festivals.

Accumulatively, they are responsible for many thousands of pounds flowing into Worcester businesses and services.

Only a few years ago, very few people would have dreamt that the proliferation of arts and entertainment across the city would come to play such a huge role in the revival of a postindustrial business society.

Yet it has – and for that we must thank the guiding light, WorcesterLive director Chris Jaeger.

Of course, many members of the old Worcester establishment did their damnedest to thwart his early ambitions. What utter nincompoops they have now proved to be.