Ancient Rome inspires council staff to learn Latin

Brainy council workers in Fenland are spending their lunch hour swotting up on Latin.

Instead of feeding the ducks or heading for the pub, staff from IT, accounts and customer services are getting to grips with this dead, but fascinating, language.

It was the brainchild of business analyst Peter Allen who believes learning Latin has far more benefits as a brain stretching exerrcise than Sudoku.

I take my hat off to them – of which I have many – it’s certainly one of the more unusual perks. I know I would be joining in if I worked there.

One useful Latin phrase everyone should know is: “Discissorem esse Xerographium perperamputavi”. It means “I mistook the shredder for a copying machine”. It might come in useful one day.