Everyone agreed that he brought a soldierly efficiency to the event, in which he had to walk backwards before the queen without tripping.

ECONOMIST: Duke of Norfolk

With a parting gift of a large, spherical rice cake to allow each child to grow a year older in peace, the Toshidon walk backwards out of the house and proceed to the next family.

UNESCO: Culture

In his story, sorcerers and fortune-tellers had to walk backwards since their heads had been twisted 180 degrees, unable to see what is ahead because they tried, through forbidden means, to look ahead to the future in life.

FORBES: Welcome to Dante's Soma

This is no trip down memory lane, no backwards glance through rose-tinted spectacles, but an evening walk on Bryher in the Scilly Isles.

BBC: The last piece of England