Culture Gallery

Entertainment - Road Safety - Green Cross Code Song - London

Comedian Tommy Cooper and constable Edward McLernon, of Manchester and Salford Police, are supported by a "backing group" of pupils from Rackhouse Junior School, Wythenshawe, Manchester, as they sing the "Green Cross Code" song, with words by PC McLernon and song to a traditional folk melody. The song has been recorded by singer Partridge Green and copies of the record and the sheet music are to be supplied to all schools in Manchester and Salford for use in teaching the Green Cross Code, launched last April to train young children to cross the road in safety.

© PA/EMPICS

Bonsai dwarf pine, 1889

Bonsai dwarf pine, 19th-century artwork. This specimen is from Japan, and is 150 years old. Bonsai is the art of cultivating ornamental artificially-dwarfed varieties of trees. Pine trees allowed to grow naturally can reach heights of over 20 metres. Artwork from the 4th volume (second period of 1889) of the French popular science weekly 'La Science Illustree'.

© SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Dante's Inferno, suicides and the Harpies

Dante's Inferno. Canto XIII, line 11: 'Here [suicide tree] the brute Harpies make their nest' (at right: Dante and Virgil). Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) wrote his epic poem 'Divina Commedia' (The Divine Comedy) between 1308 and his death in 1321. Totalling 14, 233 lines, and divided into three parts (Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso), it is considered the greatest literary work in the Italian language and a world masterpiece. It is a comprehensive survey of medieval theology, literature and thought. Artwork by French artist Gustave Dore (1832-1883); engraving from 'The Vision of Hell' (1868), Henry Francis Cary's English translation of the Inferno.

© MIDDLE TEMPLE LIBRARY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY