Val McDermid presented as an invited guest speaker to my undergraduate class. Unfortunately the students found it difficult to see her, hidden behind the stack of tables and chairs at the back of the classroom.

I could have done with McDermid’s knowledge of forensics earlier in the week when someone switched my Mac keyboard with an inferior model. I had left it unattended – along with my iPhone and purse – in the library of a Cambridge college. I had been under the (false) impression that no thieves would dare practise their trade in such an august establishment.