The chinks of light amid this year’s topical doom and gloom .

The default setting for the modern world is terrifying, absurd and, weirdly, quite warm. So it’s important to remind yourself that not everything is terrible. The year 2018 may be remembered as a time of minimal sweetness and barely-perceptible light, but here are nine things that happened over the past 12 months that prove it wasn’t a total write-off.

England, you may have read, is divided. There was an antidote this summer when the once-tragic national football team, let’s be honest, lucked their way to a World Cup semi-final. It was a wild few weeks, featuring waistcoat mania, rediscovered appreciation for the Lightning Seeds and Mr Harry Maguire riding an inflatable unicorn. No happy ending, but that does not dim the rare treat of a near-universally enjoyed mass-cultural event.

One of the most influential musicians of the past 20 years, Swedish electro hero Robyn seemed to have entered a phase on the margins. The occasional guest spot among the echoes of her work across vast swathes of modern pop. In October, she returned with Honey, her first album in eight years. Predictably, given her impeccable career, it is a beautiful, bold and concise lesson in brilliance.

Perhaps the portents were there. Perhaps we should have guessed that everything we thought we knew about football was wrong. Not only can an England team be likeable and relatively successful, but football scarves can now be regarded as aspirational accessories. Mr Henry Holland, Versace and Balenciaga made their own versions of the traditionally 100 per cent polyester/100 per cent ugly terrace mainstays. That’s an accessible trend we can all get on board with.

From the realms of science as miracle – a woman in Brazil born without a uterus gave birth this year. She was the recipient of a successful womb transplant from an organ donor, and had a baby girl by caesarean section just over two years after her operation. This is the sort of thing that might be making the front pages of newspapers if it wasn’t for President Trump and Brexit.

It is embarrassing that it took until 2018 for Hollywood to realise that a predominantly black cast could lead an action blockbuster, but that’s probably not the only thing our ancestors will be looking back upon as pretty weird several decades from now. A vivid, funny whirlwind of a film, regardless of its historical context.

Mr Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul On Ice is 214 pages long, but it took one very slow reader in San Francisco 47 years to bring it back to the city’s public library. Imagine the profound feeling of relief. And the late fee.

Get a load of Knickers, a 1.94m, 1,400kg steer that was spared the abattoir because he couldn’t fit. What an absolute unit.

Ms Hannah Gadsby’s stand-up special thoughtfully explored self-worth, anger and homophobic violence. Incredibly, it was also full of excellent jokes. Give thanks for the billions of pounds Netflix is pouring into ensuring we never leave the house again.

A result of a Sahara sandstorm gone awry, making parts of Ukraine look oddly like Mars. Very pretty, just don’t eat it.

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