The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford cherishes two rather contrary claims to fame. Founded in 1683, it purports to be Britain’s oldest public museum – and having been reopened by the Queen in December 2009 after a £61m redevelopment, it’s also perhaps the country’s most modern.

We visited recently, and were hugely impressed. Amidst the usual pervery that comes into play in every museum (at least for us!) – which of the female statues has the most whippable behind, that sort of thing – we discovered a rather lovely hands-on display about ancient alphabets. One could even write one’s own sentences – such as:

(This last one – very politically correctly, we thought – caters for multiple interest   groups, depending on whether the man loves ‘you’ – or the sheep!)