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What factors determine our height? Britain’s plateau explained
British adults are about 10 cm taller than their great grandparents, yet mean male height in England rose by barely 1 cm between 1993 and 2019. This article uses the British plateau to work through what actually sets adult height, from genes to the first thousand days.
Who are the tallest women of all time? Ten records and the proof
Ten women have been credibly measured above seven feet, and the tallest British person ever recorded was one of them. This is who they were, what they actually measured, and how we know.
Who are the tallest basketball players ever, and Britain’s giants?
Two of the ten tallest basketball players ever recorded were born in England, and between them they played nought minutes in the NBA. This is the British story of extreme height in the game, with the world list and an honest look at what those heights measure.
Zhang Ziyu: how tall is she really, and can her game catch up?
FIBA measured her at 220 cm, the press writes anything from 220 to 226, and nobody has ratified a figure. Her story, her numbers with their sources attached, and the question that will actually decide her career.
Eric Kilburn’s size 22 feet, and the Welsh case nobody helped
Guinness measured his feet at 34.30 cm and his hands at 23.20 cm, and gives his shoe size as an American 23 or a British 22. A Welsh rugby player one size smaller had the same problem in 2015 and got a news appeal rather than four brands.
Jérémy Gohier, 7ft 6in at sixteen, and the French club he chose
Jérémy Gohier turned sixteen in November 2026, so the pre-teen record this article was built on has lapsed. He is now 7ft 6in, the tallest player at the 2026 under-17 World Cup, and signed to a French club rather than an American programme.
Olivier Rioux at 7ft 9in: the tallest man in college basketball
Olivier Rioux is twenty, so the tallest teenager record this article was built on has lapsed. He became the tallest player ever to appear in a college game, then played seventeen minutes in a season.
The tallest couple ever: the London wedding that made them famous
Anna Haining Swan and Martin Van Buren Bates were married at St Martin-in-the-Fields on 17 June 1871, and spent three years touring from Britain before they ever set up house in Ohio. This is the British side of the story, and an honest look at how uncertain their measurements are.
Zeng Jinlian, and the record Guinness refused to ratify in 1981
Guinness gives the tallest woman ever 246.3 cm, not the 2.48 m that circulates. The figure is an estimate, because her scoliosis meant she could not be measured standing, and the same was true of the Birmingham woman she displaced.
Adam Rainer, the only man recorded as both a dwarf and a giant
Adam Rainer was measured at 122.55 cm on an army medical bench in 1917 and at 234 cm on his deathbed in 1950, and no other case like it exists. This article separates what the record actually holds from the claims that have grown around it.