He once made Norway a force in world football and now he is trying to repeat the trick, with some success. Glenn Moore assesses how his current team matches up to sides of old

Amsterdam's all very well, but drive off the tourist track and you'll find history and glorious sunlit seas in Zeeland, says David Ryan

The scale of this Scottish art festival makes others look meagre, and the quality of the work is very tasty too

The bridge that links Sweden and Denmark has its own TV series, says Gerard Gilbert

Firefighters are tackling a blaze on an island owned by a multi-millionaire.

Home favourite looks poised to pose in fourth Green Jacket after young pretender finds demons chasing him around the National course again

With a blockbuster exhibition of modern art coming to town, Steve Vickers sets off on an cultural circuit of Gothenburg

A Political Life

If you're having withdrawal symptoms after Henning Mankell wrote finis to the chronicles of Kurt Wallander, remember that it's possible to take alternative journeys down the mean streets of Swedish cities. If you're hardy enough to tackle crime narratives drenched in vitriol, grit your teeth and tackle Jens Lapidus's lacerating Stockholm Noir trilogy: Easy Money is the first volume. Lapidus paints a more cosmopolitan canvas than other writers – not to mention employing a far grimmer and more nihilistic use of the genre, with nary a comforting Swedish copper in sight.

Snow Report

It seems implausible. For his guide to crime fiction, Barry Forshaw set himself the task of cataloguing and analysing some 200 books by over 70 authors while at the same time delivering helpful insights into the national character of five countries: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. To make things harder still, he interviewed a selection of authors, translators, commissioning editors and academics, and included lengthy extracts.

Great Britain have been drawn away to Sweden in the Fed Cup World Group II play-offs on April 21-22.

Brooding, darkand intense – as you'd expect

The Danes have a venerable food culture that dates back centuries. But it wasn't until 2004 and the formulation of the Manifesto for the New Nordic Kitchen by Claus Meyer, René Redzepi and other Nordic chefs, that the country, and in particular Copenhagen, became a bona fide destination for gastronomic tourists.