“The Mars of the Mid-Atlantic”, Ascension Island, is the subject of a programme by Peter Gibbs and Matthew Teller due to be broadcast on Radio 4 tomorrow at 3.30 pm. If it’s as good as Teller’s excellent piece on the Halley Research Station in Antarctica — which I’ve only just caught up with because I was away and offline when it appeared in March — it should be well worth a listen. Ever wondered how people end up working down there? Me too. Teller offers an answer: “Most of Halley’s heavy-duty vehicle drivers are recruited from BAS adverts placed in Farmers Weekly magazine.”

Another piece I missed, again on Antarctica, was by Peter Hughes in the FT (and worth signing on to read). A century on from Shackleton’s doomed expedition, he retraced its course on a ship with giant buffets and a band in woolly hats.