 T. S. Eliot was right: april is the cruellest month ... if you are forced to work indoors while the thermometer rises to record levels.  Temperature records were broken yesterday as Britain basked in the hottest day of the year, with forecasters indicating that the season could be more like North africa than the usual rainy British fare. The hottest place in the country, according to the Met Office, was St James's Park in London where an afternoon temperature of 23.6C (74.5F) was recorded, breaking the previous record for april 6 set as long ago as 1892. Santon Downham, Suffolk, was close behind with 23.5C.  Records tumbled the previous evening when Scotland and Northern Ireland recorded some 