have two sent out. waitrose sending out gender neutral is one, happy you day, rather than mother's day, which i think is horrible. i prefer the ones from scribblers, if you are dealing with a same—sex couple, two mothers is better than one would be one of the cards, and another one that i like, dad, thanks for being the most amazing mother. they seem to have a bit of wit about them. the worst thing is that we should rename the day completely... to make it gender neutral. guardian ‘s day of carers day. which is all. blue it ta kes carers day. which is all. blue it takes it away from what it was, which is mothering sunday, part of the easter pattern of lent. many people will not be aware of that. but it is like when you say happy holidays instead of happy christmas, we are having holidays because it is christmas. this is to do with ancient church stuff that carried on into the anglican and catholic

church, going to your mother church which would be bigger church to the parish it is not about mothers. this is pure commercial... we were talking about this. and you call yourself a historian(!) what you think about father's day? should it be the same thing happening? i'm sure the same thing will happen... you have grandparents... it is like valentine's day, if you care about somebody, do you have to have a special day to do it? that is what my husband says, and it still doesn't wash, he says, everyday is valentine's day! know, nigel, no! laughter —— every day. laughter -- every day. the getting the card? he never does forget the card, i a lwa ys he never does forget the card, i always do! i hope he's not watching. thank you very much, back again,

just after 11:30pm. may even have different stories mixed in, make sure that you tune into the papers, and stay tuned, next on bbc news, it is meet the author. —— meet the author. sergeant hamish macbeth lives in a sleepy place, lochdubh, in the highlands where you might think there's not much drama. but 33 books on, he's investigating yet another murder in death of an honest man. yet, in mc beaton‘s novels, even when dastardly happenings are all around you, the pace of life in lochdubh, with its regular cast of characters never seems to change. these are crime stories that are written to be reassuring. welcome. what do you think hamish macbeth‘s secret is?

ithink... what fascinates people is he's totally unambitious. and what i try to do, you see, i think of myself more as an escape artist than a writer, is give someone something to take their mind off the troubles or a wet day or a journey. and it's based on a crofter that i still know up near buey, and he would say, "just fed the hens and i'm going to see my cousin in hong kong." and very laid—back. fascinating. yes, it is interesting. of course, he doesn't want to leave lochdubh, which is a lovely place, although terrible things keep happening.

and he's terrified. inspector blair, who keeps interfering with him and his activities, is always a threat on the horizon but all he wants to do is stay with his own folk in the village and that's a very reassuring thing to readers, isn't it? yes, it is. it observes the unity, keeping it all in a small place, and justice seen to be done. i admit it's rather old—fashioned because it can't be high—tech. the forensic lab's usually off playing shinty or drunk. but it's reassuring to know that it will all come all right in the end. i like stories with happy endings. you do, clearly. and there is also a great calm in the way that you write. there's no sense of hurry or frenzy, even when awful things are happening. there will be a moment of violence, we're not going to give away the plot because that would be a terrible thing to do,

but there is a placid quality to the whole thing. that's really what you're aiming to do, isn't it? it is. comfort reading. when i had a hip operation in paris, i sent my sister up to whsmith on the rue de rivoli to buy as many agatha christies as she could put her hands on. because that is also... the between the wars detective stories which i love, it portrays a world, a small world, where there is always a squire, and there's the strawberries and the tennis parties. it was a world of the very small privileged few. of course. but there's also something about these stories that will remind some people, i suppose, of something like the father brown stories, where nothing much seems to happen. it's a very gentle, unfolding of a story but it has a kind of... you know, simple elegance to it, just as a tale. thank you very much. people often think because it's very easy to read, it must be easy to write but i only do one draft, and i've a friend in paris who said, "you've got a very good literary background, "why don't you write something... "different?"

he meant better, you know? i said but that's the best i can do. you can't cheat the reader. it's the very best i can do. if it comes out frivolous... you have to check you don't use the same word twice, and you lay it on layers. a lot of people do confuse good writing, powerful writing, emotionally charged writing with complexity, you know, with invention, with changes in form. you're you can do it like that if you want but you can also do itjust by writing good, old, plain english. yes. also, an editor way back wondered why agatha raisin hadn't been published, for example, in this country. and i said they want the dark side, and i don't do dark. you know, i don't do torture. and anything with children being hurt, i run a mile. so, nobody gets electrodes and the ghoulies in my books, you know. maybe not, but they do get murdered.

the title of this, death of an honest man, sort of gives it away. somebody is killed in the village. it's always someone who deserves to be killed. there's nothing worse than people who tell it like it is. i speak as i find which means they don't care about your feelings. when people say he tells it like it is, they usually mean he tells it like it isn't. yes, exactly! that's the truth, isn't it? absolutely. you've got to get people to accept the absurd premise a bit like midsomer murders on television, where you have a village, and, indeed miss marple's village in christie, you mentioned, where every other day there is a murder. now, we know this doesn't happen. it just doesn't. it's fantasy. it's complete fantasy. there's been one murder in sutherland the past 100 years. i make up for it. yeah, you've certainly made up for it. now, what kind of guy is hamish macbeth?

he is, as you say, unambitious. there he is, with his shock of ginger hair, he knows everybody in the village... 0h, not ginger. red. right, red hair. and he, obviously, knows everybody in the village. what keeps him going? he loves the laid—back life. he is lazy. he's unambitious. he's intuitive. a lot of the highlanders have sort of rudimentary telepathy. you have to be polite inside as well as out. well, people talk about having extra powers and, you know, all the rest of it, in the highlands, and stories about these things. do you believe there is something lurking about? instinctively they seem to know what you're thinking. it's rather unnerving. he has that quality and also just a general love of the land. geography shapes people, you see. they said would i ever move agatha raisin to the highlands? the other series, yes.

it wouldn't fit in. it would be ridiculous. you obviously love the highlands. yes, my mother was highland. when we lived in glasgow, she used... she believed in fairies. she used to put a dish of milk forfairies. in glasgow? in glasgow. and the hedgehog drank it but we didn't like to destroy her illusions. well, she knew it was an illusion, presumably butjust kept it going. oh, no! oh, no? no! no, there's nothing madder than some type of highlander! you're writing about a world that you don't want to see go, and you don't want to destroy, you don't want to... have to experience too much turbulence. you just want it to be described, understood and absorbed. yes. and a bit of kindness. a little bit of decency underneath, which is considered old fashioned, except alexander mccall smith has brought it back into fashion. i read one of his isabel dalhousies and i thought, this is...

and then i got addicted to them. yes, well, addiction seems to have happened to hamish macbeth. will he continue? will there be more? well, i'm contracted for two more. i'll try to retire. i said to my agent, i want fun. and i went on a hebridean cruise, you know, the very expensive one? what a waste of money. everyone was so nice. there was no one i wanted to kill. yeah. it would have been nicer if there'd been a murder, then you could have... not a murder, just someone obnoxious. i mean, the orient express was marvellous for obnoxiousness but there was no one there. they were just absolutely marvellous. waste of space, so i decided to go back to work. back, more writing? more writing. mc beaton, author of death of an honest man and 33 books featuring sergeant hamish macbeth, thank you very much. thank you very much

indeed for asking me. for most of us, it was noticeably milder on saturday, as the rain band continue to clear north and skies brightened up, particularly across england and wales, top temperatures around the mid—teens. low pressure has been responsible for the mild airand the rain. has been responsible for the mild air and the rain. as we head through the overnight period into first thing monday, looks like the rain will be confined to the far north of scotla nd will be confined to the far north of scotland and the northern isles, some showers will run into southern parts of england and this feature will bring some rain to the south—eastern england and east anglia but elsewhere, clear and cooler night, with the chance of mist and fog, don't be surprised if we wa ke mist and fog, don't be surprised if we wake up to scenes like this are in the course of sunday morning. dense and slow to clear, there will be some sunshine around, this feature, bringing rain across east anglia and the south—east, wishing

away into the north sea, turning dryer here as we head towards the afternoon. england and wales, further showers developing, some may thundery, best and bright dry weather will be scotland and northern ireland, milder day for you, 101! degrees, not so mild across england and wales on wales on saturday, on into monday, this feature which is going to bring some wetter and breezy weather to england and wales, area of low pressure, through the english channel, further north and west, largely fine and dry. for monday, this is the picture, over much of northern ireland, parts of scotland, best of the sunshine through the day for england and wales, more cloud around and also showers and longer spells of rain. cooler field to things, generally, single figure digits again across the north, down to eight to 10 degrees for england and wales. tuesday promises to be a better day for most of the uk, rich of high—pressure welding in will

settle things, chilly start, bit of mist and fog around, should see some sunny spells, one or two showers developing across the south and the south—west. not as mild as the weekend, nine to 10 degrees. as we head through wednesday and thursday, a bit more unsettled once again, more cloud, outbreaks of rain, the king up more of a breeze from the east and south—east as well. —— picking up more of a breeze. this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at 11:00 — the bbc has learned that police have found traces of the nerve agent that was used to attack sergei and yulia skripal at the zizzi restaurant where they ate. this investigation is

about protecting safety, what cobra was about, and collecting all evidence so we know where attribution will lead. no more changes to exams, and a reduction in teachers‘ workload — the education secretary promises to make changes as he attempts to resolve the school recruitment crisis. talks between the eu, japan and us on president trump's —— police said they are taking reports of hate mail extremely seriously after more than one people across the country are