The World’s Largest Rubber Duck. View more pictures on The Telegraph. 

It has already journeyed down the Thames but now the Floating Duck Sculpture, the work of Florentign Hoffman has made it all the way to Hong Kong.

The structure arrived in the city this week (May 2nd) and is set to remain in Hong Kong until June 9th.

Dubbed Spreading Joy Around the World, the duck was dreamt up by the Dutch conceptual artist to introduce a little fun into the art world. It has already travelled to 12 cities in ten different countries and looks set to continue bringing its peaceful message to the world.

The artist’s website explains the thought behind the creation: “The Rubber Duck knows no frontiers, it doesn’t discriminate people and doesn’t have a political connotation. The friendly, floating Rubber Duck has healing properties: it can relieve mondial tensions as well as define them.

“The rubber duck is soft, friendly and suitable for all ages!

The structure is the World’s Largest Rubber Duck and measures in at 26 x 20 x 32 metres.

Shakespeare. Butter wouldn’t melt?

A new report has claimed that the playwright William Shakespeare could have been a tax dodger and a “ruthless businessman”.

Researchers from Aberystwyth University have been looking into the Bard’s life as one of the biggest landowners in Warwickshire and discovered that he didn’t always uphold the morals put forth in his plays.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, Jayne Archer, a researcher in Renaissance literature at the Welsh university, commented: “There was another side to Shakespeare besides the brilliant playwright — as a ruthless businessman who did all he could to avoid taxes, maximize profits at others’ expense and exploit the vulnerable – while also writing plays about their plight to entertain them.”

One particularly harsh notion is the accusation that Shakespeare exploited the famine that gripped the nation during his lifetime. The academics claimed that he “stored grain, malt and barely for resale at inflated prices to neighbors and local tradesmen”. The profits from these sales were reportedly funneled into further land purchases.

While doing his best to profit from others’ hunger, it appears that this dark side of the Bard was also doing everything he could to “avoid taxes, maximize profits at others’ expense and exploit the vulnerable”.

His approach may have been dubious, but it did allow Shakespeare to retire after a working life of just 24 years, suggesting his efforts were indeed profitable, however questionable his morals were.

The bread roll in question

A family in Surrey has kept a bread roll for over 120 years as an heirloom linking them to a relative who was imprisoned over a century ago.

Joseph Harrison was released from Wandsworth Gaol back in 1889 after a short time behind bars. He was locked up after taking part in the country’s anti-compulsory vaccination programme and later failing to pay a fine for not inoculating his daughters against smallpox.

The bread roll in question formed part of his breakfast on the last day of his incarceration. Mr Harrison chose to keep it as a reminder of his prison time and dried and preserved the roll in a paper bag kept in the chimney breast of his home.

Now his 92-year-old grandson, Terry O’Kelly from Abinger in Surrey, has come forward to share his story of one of the world’s oldest pieces of bread. Speaking to the Leatherhead Advertiser, Mr O’Kelly said: “I remember when I was a kid, if other members of the family were coming over, he would get up there and get this brown paper bag out and show it to them.

“He was very proud of it, although he never spoke about his time in prison. All his life he was involved with the anti-vaccination campaign.”

The existence of the bread roll re-emerged when its original owner’s grandson showed the item to Liz Hamilton, the Abinger parish magazine editor who is also the current inhabitant of Mr Harrison’s former home.

Ms Hamilton explained that the bread looks just like “a piece of stale bread from a week or two ago”, adding that it’s hard to believe its true age.