a) One of the Tibetan names for this mountain translates as “Mountain So High That No Bird Can Fly Over It”. It was first measured in 1852 and was called Peak XV until 1865, when it was named after the British Surveyor of India, Sir George Everest.

b) About 200 million years ago, the Indian subcontinent broke away from a vast southern super-continent called Gondwanaland. It drifted north-east across the sea and collided with the Asian landmass. These two huge landmasses buckled, rather like cars in a head-on collision, and rose up to form the world’s tallest mountain.

c) Mapping the Himalayas and Everest wasn’t easy. Foreigners were not welcome, so Himalayan traders were recruited to infiltrate the area and gather enough information to allow accurate maps to be made.

d) Fossilized fish remains have been found high up on the slopes of Everest proving that the world’s highest mountain once lay at the bottom of the sea. How did this happen?

a) Habeas corpus, a law by which a prisoner could demand to be brought before the courts and have his case heard, was a well-established right in England, but the authorities had found a number of ways of getting round its use where political prisoners were concerned.

b) The new act put a stop to such abuses and deprived the executive of powers it might have used to support oppressive and arbitrary government.

c) In 1679, what became known as the first Exclusionist Parliament passed at least one useful piece of legislation: on the day parliament was suspended, the King gave his assent to a Habeas Corpus Act.

d) James Harrington, the philosopher, is a good example. When his sisters applied for habeas corpus, he was taken from the Tower of London to a barren island where habeas corpus could not be imposed.