We’ve teamed up with Shieldhill Castle, near Biggar, to offer readers the chance to win a luxury one night stay , including dinner with a bottle of house wine, and breakfast.

24/05/31 - What’s It All About? By a strange quirk of fate, Hollywood megastars Michael Douglas and Will Smith share the same birthday (September 25) - albeit several years apart.

WELCOME to Monaco. Park your yacht over there and join me for a couple of laps of the world’s most celebrated F1 venue. With race weekend just a few days away, the barriers, grandstands and banners are in place and the circuit is ready for action.

To celebrate our new look Advertiser, we’ve teamed up with The Elphinstone Hotel to offer readers the chance to win a fantastic meal for two and a room for the night with breakfast.

The Roaring Twenties sound gets revamped to accompany Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire and hit cinemas on May 16.

Peter Hart, oral historian at the Imperial War Museum, examines the First World War, charting major battles and small skirmishes to build an in-depth overview of the first truly global conflict. The sheer level of detail Hart presents is astonishing, providing combat formations and movements, weapons and military hardware used on both sides, and a wealth of knowledge encompassing all involved.

This week I reproduce a poster widely used by East Lothian Ranger Service over recent years.

If you’ve watched one episode of Grand Designs too many and have been bitten by the self-build bug, be prepared for a bumpy ride.

An airy, elegant home with decorative tiles and nature-inspired murals, where the outdoors blends seamlessly with the indoors, would be an enviable property by today’s standards.

Take cuttings

In the captain’s log from the 1960s TV series, James Tiberius Kirk brazenly split an infinitive as the crew of the Enterprise embarked on a five-year mission “to boldly go where no man has gone before”.

What’s It All About? Apart from making tea, driving Lisbon (Robin Tunney) crazy, and outing murderers with clever mind games, Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) has spent the past five series doing little else, but hunting for Red John. Now the California Bureau of Investigation’s most unusual independent consultant narrows down the list of people who could be the serial killer to seven suspects. However, the man who murdered his wife and daughter strikes again, and Jane is dealt another blow when he discovers the victim is linked to Jane’s past.

In a world where music’s as much about how it sounds as the story accompanying it, Seasick Steve seemed too good to be true at first.

There’s an almost tangible feeling of calm and comfort as you enter Alex Legendre’s house with its muted palette of earthy colours, lath and plaster walls, wide reclaimed floorboards and collection of quirky treasures.

One of the best ways to make your home more suited to your needs, especially if you have a growing family or want to work from home, is to add a bedroom.

This week’s picture shows a handsome male blackbird.

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Tackle the pond

Like so many European film-makers, Niels Arden Oplev has answered Hollywood’s siren song.

What’s It All About? Hayley Atwell stars as risk-taking policewoman Denise Woods who, in this first episode, we meet in her early twenties in 1985.