The HMV record label needs no introduction to music lovers. But where did the initials originate? From a dog called Nipper, actually, shown on the original labels, listening to his master’s voice coming out of the old gramophone. Nipper was a real live VIP, and the royalties he brought in to his master would have bought him one of the very best dog beds of its day.

Strange names some people give their dogs.

Hands up who knew that Marie Antoinette’s spaniel was called Thisbe?

It’s a name that featured in Ovid’s Metamorphosis and in the story of Pyramus and Thisbe in Roman mythology.

What happened to Thisbe and his dog bed when his mistress went off to be beheaded on the Guillotine? Who knows…