DINNER PARTY INTEL: Fix your plot from beyond the grave

1. Who dunnit? Ask AI

Aspiring authors, and even some established ones, can find inspiration and instruction online today from Margaret Atwood to Lee Child. Now the late Agatha Christie has joined them. Thanks to AI and archival footage, the queen of crime, who died in 1976, offers a course on BBC Maestro, an online education platform. The Christie family have consented to bringing her back to life to teach “her style”.

2. Our very fine bush

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, with its splendid fynbos, is one of the 25 gardens in the world you must visit, according to The New York Times. Juliet Sargeant, one of the six horticultural experts who chose the 25, praised Kirstenbosch for being the first of its kind in the world dedicated entirely to indigenous flora, while colleague Tim Richardson advised visitors not to do it in one day: “You do bits and then come back another day and do other bits. It’s really quite wild.”

3. The vanishingly few

With the 80th anniversary of VE Day last week to commemorate the end of World War 2 in Europe, many commentators remarked on how few veterans remain. When the next big anniversary takes place, there may be none. War historian Max Hastings says “something will have gone”, to which The Economist responded that what Britain calls “our” finest hour would become “their” finest hour.