Christmas is, for many, a time of contradictions, and I feel them very much here, in the choice of dark black and bright pink. With rosy cheeks from the cold and a clutch of festive goods being hurried along in the snow …

Happy International Bat Appreciation Day. While the museum has real bat specimens in its collection, along with cricket bats, my eye was drawn to this small Victorian playing card …

Oh, what you've done to my heart! It might not be a classic Valentine card image, but this example from the mid-1900s of a steamroller ploughing its way over a heart is, I believe, quite brilliant …