"In The story of Marie Powell, Wife to Mr. Milton" (1943) Robert Graves – half a century before Carol Ann Duffy – creates a Mrs for a famous Mr, a Mr who Graves regards as one of the heinous monsters in the English poetic pantheon. Certainly his Mrs...

"Antigua, Penny, Puce" (1937), a barbed tale of sibling rivalry, gave its title to a never-issued one penny puce-and-white stamp from Antigua with George VI's portrait on it and three puce pigs eating at a puce trough. Jane and Oliver are the sibling...