The gardener had pointed to a thick bamboo stem and explained that if a pebble was thrown at it and it hit the trunk slightly off-centre, it would bounce off and make hardly any sound.

ECONOMIST: Guru

Plans for a multimillion-pound alteration to a trunk road junction and improvements to the centre of a North Yorkshire town are to go on display.

BBC: Revised Malton road plan to go on show in town

The road has been proposed as a solution to city centre congestion and as a way of easing travel across Inverness from the A96 and A82 trunk roads.

BBC: Inverness West Link: Vote favours Option Six route