SAY “Easter” to me and two images come to mind. One is of the many Aldermaston anti-nuclear bomb marches. The marches started in 1958 and introduced thousands of young — and older — people, including a teenage Frosty, to political protest and action.

The other Easter memory? It was the often chocolate Easter Bunnies that came with the Easter Eggs. Rabbits, like eggs, are often used as a symbol of fertility or rebirth and have long been associated with spring. As so often is the case, the Christian Church nicked the pagan imagery and legends and incorporated them in their own Easter resurrection celebrations.

Part of any romantic image of our British countryside has to be that loveable bunny. Yet the rabbit is a non-native species that was bought here as an easy source of fresh meat by Roman soldiers who had drawn the short straw and been sent to the cold and unwelcoming islands they called Albion just off the west coast of mainland Europe.