After being treated for Hodgkin's lymphoma at 24, Emily McDowell was flooded with sympathy cards full of clichés and grim jokes, and found they made her feel more isolated. Her friend Amy's death from cancer in 2011 pushed her to leave advertising and design the cards she had wished for, which speak plainly about illness. Released in 2015, the line was written to help people say something honest to someone who is ill, and its top seller simply reads 'There is no good card for this'. Thousands of readers have since written in, including many doctors and nurses who give the cards to patients, and the cards have spread into countries where English is not the first language. The series shows how a small, honest sentence can matter more than a polite platitude.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.