A few of my favourite things… MUSEUMS

Glandford Shell Museum, Norfolk: Perhaps the smallest and most charming museum that I have ever visited, it was built in 1915 by Sir Alfred Jodrell to house his collection of shells from around the world. Wisbech and Fenland Museum, Cambridgeshire: This museum has retained all its exquisite fixtures and fittings from when it was built in 1847. Sir John Soane’s Museum, London: Designed by the architect to house his works of art and antiquities as well as his family, this highly individual house and its contents remain as it was at the time of his death in 1837 and has opened as a museum ever since.

Booth Natural History Museum, Brighton: Founded in 1874 by naturalist and collector, Edward Booth, this museum contains an impressive collection of entomology, ornithology, fossils and skeletons. Grant Museum of   Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, London: Dating from 1828, the museum collection was built up for the purposes of university teaching. One of my favourite parts of this museum is the Micrarium which has a display of 20,000 microscopic slides and includes such things as flea legs!

The images on this page show microscopic slides from the Micrarium at the Grant Museum.