And Finally…: The Weird and Wonderful World of News

And Finally… is the injection of cheer we all need in these rather depressing times. This heart-warming book takes a look at the very best ‘…and finally’ segments of the news – those funny, silly and often eccentric stories the newsreaders save until the end of the programme, to leave on a high note.

Author and journalist Ryan Herman has selected the finest moments of serendipity, the astounding acts of kindness and generosity, the outrageous ideas come to life and the downright silly happenings and brought them together in this book.

The tales range from the drunken mice causing havoc but ultimately endearing themselves to the workers at a sherry distillery in Spain; the bride-to-be and huge Swiftie who invited Taylor Swift to her wedding and got the surprise of her lifetime when Taylor flew to Ohio to attend her bridal shower; the owner of a riding school for disabled children who raised tens of thousands of pounds after Lucian Freud popped into one of her amateur horse-sketching classes and left his drawing behind, and Stephanie, the child refugee who founded a female-run software company in 1960s Britain, who was routinely faced with sexism when selling her products. When she posed as ‘Steve’ when writing to software companies her business suddenly took off and when she later sold her business, she made 70 of her employees millionaires.

This is a feel-good book for dark times – packed with uplifting human interest stories, people (and a few animals) doing extraordinary things, idiosyncratic slices of life and simple fun tales. There is a quote in the book from filmmaker Ali Catterall that sums it up best of all. He says, “I think we need stories that shake us out of our complacency […] You can find magic in a dustbin. It depends where and how you look."