Prince Philip unwittingly saved the world’s rarest marsupial from extinction. In 1962, the Duke of Edinburgh successfully lobbied for an area of Australian bushland to be designated a wildlife sanctuary. Unbeknown to anyone, the bush contained a number of Gilbert’s potoroo, a tiny “rat-kangaroo” written off as extinct for a century. The potoroos were rediscovered in 1994, and conservation efforts are thought to have now boosted their numbers to more than 100.

Sally Rooney is a literary sensation – but is her writing too safe? Recently the Irish author’s novels have been criticised for being narrow-minded: they are all set in white, middle-class, Irish society. White authors like Rooney can’t win, says the writer Tomiwa Owolade on the Radio 4 podcast Pride or Prejudice: How we Read Now. If you write about non-white people in a way that’s not entirely “perfect”, you risk offending a great deal of people and torpedoing your career. But if you only write about white people, everyone tells you you’re too conventional. “Whatever you do you’re always in the wrong.”

On the face of it, Anne Glenconner has led a charmed life, says Henry Mance in the FT. Born into an aristocratic family, the 89-year-old spent three decades as Princess Margaret’s lady-in-waiting and hung out with the likes of Mick Jagger on the Caribbean island of Mustique. But while “her fortunes have been extreme, so have her misfortunes”.

For most Westerners, rice is just a vehicle for other flavours. But in Japan it’s a very different story, says Kenji Hall in Taste magazine. Connoisseurs pore over different strains as if it’s single-origin coffee or champagne. In newspapers “rice sommeliers” tell readers which types work best with different meals. Shopkeepers certified as “five-star rice meisters” show off their skills with “special in-house blends and taste charts”.