There is a bloody battle afoot in the world of crime fiction. Few would deny that the status quo in the fictional worlds of murder and detection these days is a grim and gritty one, with operatic levels of violence practically obligatory. And this isn't just the male practitioners of the genre; many female writers now cheerfully out-Herod Herod when it comes to upping the body count.

a Dualit toaster. A set of Riedel wine glasses. A Nespresso coffee machine. A flat-screen TV complete with state-of-the-art DVD player. Fluffy Egyptian-cotton towels. Pure silk bed linen... What about the cuddly toy? Never mind. Didn't they do well?

There are few surprises for Blue Nile fans on this first solo album from singer Paul Buchanan, save perhaps for the general mood of stability: even the emotional turbulence sketched in “Wedding Day” is recollected in tranquillity.

An increasing number of British couples are heading overseas to get married after being discouraged by the cost of holding a wedding in the UK, says research.

Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd, the Americans imprisoned in Iran after they took a wrong turn while hiking, were married at the weekend – a happy ending to a romance that blossomed in the jails of Tehran.

After he retired from boxing, the Krays wanted the former apprentice jockey to ride their horses for them

Communism never found a fertile breeding ground in Great Britain, perhaps because the English chopped off Charles I's head centuries before the Russians discovered revolution. The British Communist Party was one of the smallest in Europe, and yet 80 years ago, it scored an unusual and enduring victory.

So you're getting married. It is a time of deep joy, but also a time of many choices. Do you wear white, for instance? What flowers should you have? Can you get away with not inviting Auntie Doris? Should it be in a church? Or just elope? Hell, should you just theme it around that well-known romantic film, Hunger Games? Yeah, that's right, the one in which teenagers are forced to fight, against their will, to the death.

President Jacob Zuma will marry for the sixth time next weekend when he takes his long-time fiancée, Gloria Bongi Ngema, as his fourth current wife.

It was Ginger McCain, the mastermind behind Red Rum's hat-trick of victories in the world's toughest steeplechase, who ventured only seven years ago that "horses do not win Grand Nationals ridden by women".