Bones discovery, a rock 'n' roll 77-year-old and more - Five long reads from The Yorkshire Post features this week

Surprising skeletal discovery

If there’s one thing that archaeologists were likely to find when they were tasked with excavating burials that were part of an early medieval cemetery, it was bones.

What they didn’t quite anticipate, however, was unearthing the largest chicken bones to ever be recovered from an archaeological dig in England. But that's exactly what happened when the team from TV show The Great British Dig visited Masham in North Yorkshire.

Finding a city paradise

Sexual abuse survivor Will Lisil can scarcely believe the difference between his own childhood in Brazil and that of his son in Yorkshire.

The Hull businessman has waived his right to anonymity to speak about experiences that he says occurred in São Paulo’s deadly slums more than 20 years ago.

He tells The Yorkshire Post how he was groomed into abuse but fled to make a life for himself in England – and why opening up about his past to his boy Kevin was the right decision.

Here's his story: Hull is a 'paradise' to man who fled sexual abuse in Brazil's favelas to rebuild his life

Rock Till We Drop

Barnsley’s Bette Wernick is the lead singer of a band formed by grime artist Lady Leshurr in a TV show bringing together musicians over the age of 64.

Bette, 77, is starring in Rock Till We Drop, a BBC Two programme that aims to show the world you're never too old to rock 'n' roll - if you've got the talent.

She took to the stage at the Isle of Wight Festival in front of a crowd of 65,000 people.

Here Bette chats about what it's been like to take part in the show: Age no barrier for 77-year-old Barnsley singer Bette Wernick chosen by Lady Leshurr to perform at Isle of Wight Festival in Rock Till We Drop

Recovering day by day

Rachel Matthews is still recovering a year on from a crash that left her with multiple injuries; a drunk delivery driver smashed head-on into her Jaguar, trapping the serious injury solicitor and breaking her then five-year-old daughter Emmie’s arm.

Rachel is still in rehabilitation after numerous rounds of surgery on various lower body injuries and many months of often house-bound recovery.

She speaks here about what she remembers from the ordeal and about her long recovery process: Selby woman's long recovery after A63 crash trapped her in Jaguar and broke daughter's arm

Topical comedy

Journalist and comic Matt Chorley had Partygate jokes lined up for his tour. Then, just over two weeks in, Russia invaded Ukraine, shifting the focus from the serious yet comically ripe ‘Partygate’ scandal to the grave implications of bloodshed, nuclear threats and another refugee crisis.

“I went on stage on the Thursday night that the invasion started and hadn’t planned any new material and just said, ‘Look, we’ve got a choice. We can spend two hours talking about World War Three or two hours talking about cake’, and they all shouted out ‘cake’. And so we, to a large extent, carried on as if the war wasn’t happening.”

Read our interview with Chorley here, as he talks about how politics has ‘got madder’ since 2005: Matt Chorley at Sheffield Memorial Theatre and Leeds City Varieties: Times Radio host on how politics has only got 'more mad'

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