This cannot be comforting news but it did ring a familiar bell. The Italian region closest to us has an unfortunate reputation among most other people – whether Italian or foreign. For a very long time the word Sicily would conjure up ideas of shopping trips and a quick and cheap escape...

Writing in yesterday’s Sunday Times, Inhobbkom Joseph told anybody who cared to listen that he was “deeply saddened” after the nation “experienced another frustrating and an-gering fireworks tragedy”. He went on to tell us that we have waited too long for...

Fireworks were invented in China and their original purpose was to scare off evil spirits. The next step up from the manufacture of fireworks would be the creation of gunpowder – the deadly explosive concotion with the power to take life away. The basic chemistry behind fireworks is the...