One summer’s evening a piano tuner arrives for a job and is invited to help a gang crack into the homeowner’s safe. He had taught himself the art of breaking and entering safes by watching YouTube. His customers are the kind of wealthy New Yorkers who show their unplayed pianos next to the shallow end of an indoor pool and …

I often stand on the footbridge above the railway tracks at Montrose station to watch the birds on the Basin. They are still here, I think. One evening recently, after a little trip here or there, I heard the reassuring caws of gulls and crows. But I like the noise most in the autumn when the tired geese spend the …

Who is your favourite Hercule Poirot? Agatha Christie’s detective is egotistical and effervescent and enthusiastic. The actor who plays him must be able to portray authority and use “the little grey cells” of the brain to outfox both the perpetrator and the (usually hapless) local police. The tried-and-tested formula is a murder (or two or three) in an exotic location …

The diamond industry is the biggest con-trick of all time. Many years ago, an illusion known these days as a branding exercise created “the worlds greatest symbol of love” to enable a small piece of rock to achieve the price per gram that it does. “What honest woman wants a falsehood on her finger?” In a wink to the distinct …