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On Canterbury's High Street stands a statue of Aphra Behn, a woman who defied societal constraints and indelibly shaped the landscape of English literature as the first woman in England to achieve financial independence through her writing.

Born in Canterbury in 1640, Behn went on to work as a playwright, poet, novelist, and even a spy during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. As the first female writer in England to make an independent career through writing, overcoming the 17th-century patriarchal barriers, Behn’s writing itself challenged the societal norms of the time. Her novel, "Oroonoko," critically explored slavery and colonialism, inspiring generations of authors and activists.

The statue of Behn does not depict her as the established literary figure she became, but as a teenager, as she embarked on her journey from Canterbury to London. Much like Behn herself, the statue is more than meets the eye, for many of its features allude to the multifaceted roles she assumed throughout her life. In one hand she holds a book, while the other, concealed behind her back, holds a theatre mask. As well as alluding to her gifts as a playwright, it may, alongside the scroll concealed within the statue's sleeve, hint at her exploits as a spy. The bottle of ink and its accompanying quill are suspended from her waist in recognition of her prolific literary career, whilst, at the statue’s base, a quote from Virginia Woolf acknowledges Behn’s lasting legacy.

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Award-winning entomologist Dino Martins, known for his work on pollinators, shows in his latest book that even the most gruesome creatures have vital roles to play

Dino J Martins has never been able to resist the small things. The renowned entomologist and evolutionary biologist spent his formative years in biodiversity-rich western Kenya with his foster parents, Joe and Sarah Ellen, looking at birds, flowers and insects on Mt Elgon, and in Kakamega forest and Kerio valley.

He was especially transfixed by the miniature world beneath his feet – dung beetles rolling mounds of cattle dung; safari ants’ migrations across the plains; male butterflies that suck salt and other nutrients from the mud to produce “nuptial gifts” during mating; and bees pollinating the critically endangered African violet alongside crops in a farmer’s field.

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I can’t say this didn’t grind ma gears. In picking Henderson, a player miles off the standard and never likely to play in a meaningful match – with Adam Wharton, Morgan Gibbs-White, Fill Phoden and Cole Palmer left at home – the tacit message was the players weren’t trusted to motivate and inspire themselves, the squad sufficiently complete to do without maverick and unique attacking talents. it was patently not the case at the time, and was shown to be so throughout the tournament.

Tuchel revealed that Jordan Henderson had delivered a speech before the game that had helped to put their achievement in perspective. ‘He put us in the right frame of mind, with everyone in one mindset. It was unbelievable because today was very emotional. We built something very special in the last seven weeks, and we’ll never negotiate on that. I still stand by my words, that we need to play better football, manage games better under pressure, take better decisions under pressure. We need to defend more economically.”

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