He and his costume designer certainly lay on the peacock flamboyance of the nineteen-seventies, but none of the strange creatures concerned appear to be having any fun.

NEWYORKER: Velvet Goldmine

His time as a prisoner-of-war, from 1942 onwards, was diverting to him not only because it led him to his future wife (a tall, blonde, determined Slovenian girl who came to visit him when he was transferred to an outside hospital) but also because he could observe those strange creatures, the English upper classes, up close.

ECONOMIST: Eric Newby

But just 15 minutes later, when the fox was satisfied the group was not a threat, it returned to investigate the strange herd of two legged creatures, running in circles around the group and scent-marking the small parcels of food it had previously stockpiled in the ground nearby.

BBC: Life in the fragile, frozen Arctic