The Black Country – cradle of the Industrial Revolution, refuge for a hunted king – is a graveyard of memories. This extraordinary essay unearths how that history still moulds the present and is in turn moulded by nature.

We were on the small Danish island of Fanø for the folk festival. The whole village was full of musicians and festivalgoers, talking about what we’d heard and what we’d enjoyed and what we were looking forward to hearing next.

Every Singaporean male makes the journey to Pulau Tekong for national service. Kavya Deshpande investigates why they return telling stories of a haunted island, an island of ghosts, demons, and disappearances.