Vanessa’s a pillar of the hiking community | Brief letters

Your report (Campaigners seek listed status for historic trig points that mapped Britain, 16 April) didn’t mention the Vanessa trig point – Vanessa being a corruption of the Venesta company, which made cardboard tubes into which the concrete for the pillars was poured. These were designed for less accessible places, mostly in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. I was never less than half exhausted when I met one.Margaret SquiresSt Andrews, FifeThe Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link

Zoologist, author and presenter Desmond Morris dies aged 98

The zoologist Desmond Morris, perhaps best known for his book The Naked Ape and his work on the ITV programme Zoo Time, has died aged 98.Morris’s son Jason paid tribute to him after his death on Sunday, praising his many professional achievements as well as his role as a father and grandfather.“His was a lifetime of exploration, curiosity and creativity,” Jason said. “A zoologist, manwatcher, author and artist, he was still writing and painting right up until his death. He was a great man and an even better father and grandfather

V&A East Storehouse and Norwich Castle among finalists for museum of the year

The V&A East Storehouse, the National Gallery and an accessible castle in Norwich are among the contenders for this year’s Art Fund museum of the year award, the most prestigious UK prize in the sector.The annual prize offers the winner £120,000, with £20,000 going to each of the other finalists, who the Art Fund’s director, Jenny Waldman, said had all “innovated in different ways”.This year’s list is dominated by some of the biggest names in the cultural sector that have undergone big refurbishments or invested in significant new outposts, such as the V&A’s East Storehouse, which will be seen by many as a frontrunner.Based in the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, the space aims to reimagine what a storeroom can be, with partitions removed so visitors can see “and breathe the same air” as the objects. Waldman said the V&A Storehouse, which opened in spring 2025 at a cost of £65m, had broken the boundaries of what a store could be

Letter: Sir Neil Cossons obituary

In 1971, Neil Cossons and I were on the staff of Liverpool Museum, and he invited me to accompany him on a visit to Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire. We admired Blists Hill furnace, the bridge, the surrounding buildings and their setting, and shortly afterwards he became its director.The appeal it had as a monument to the industrial revolution lay in it being a complete entity. Many other site-based museums rely on translocating buildings, often into a replicated local landscape. History occurs in places, and Neil knew that raising one’s gaze from the built artefacts to the landscape enables understanding: preserving the place was crucial

Yann Martel: ‘I hate the rich people of this world – of which I’m one, because of Life of Pi’

Your novels Life of Pi, Beatrice and Virgil, and The High Mountains of Portugal all feature animals in starring roles. If you could be any animal, which would it be, and why?A sloth, because it has a peaceful, long life. Or maybe a koala. They both look like stoners. A sloth just hangs there in its tree, it sleeps 22 hours a day – or maybe it’s meditating

Kae Tempest on creativity and his gender transition: ‘I’m just glad to be alive’

Kae Tempest sidles into a pub near his house on a weekday afternoon and orders a pint of mineral water. At his side is Murphy, an enormous, 14-year-old alaskan malamute dog with startling blue eyes who settles down on the floor next to his master and goes to sleep. “He’s all right,” Tempest says. “He’s very friendly. He won’t even put his nose up