Top stories of the week

The Dean Village is arguably one of the most photogenic areas of the city, with rows of mews houses, former mills and industrial buildings and leafy outlook

From the Forth bridges and Queensferry to the beaches of Portobello and ­Joppa, Edinburgh’s coastline communities have a proud heritage of distinct social and cultural traditions where a sense of community has endured.

I had the privilege last weekend of attending a fine event at Prestonfield House called The Tumbling Lassie Ball, the title reflecting a very interesting piece of Scottish legal history with plenty of present day connotations.

Ideological extremists could damage the UK economy, warns Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, chair of the Scottish Government’s Standing Council on Europe.

The Age of Disco has actually ended, Jim Duffy finally discovers on a night out with his 19-year-old daughter.

When Evan Rachel Wood needs a jolt of confidence, she puts on a certain playlist, a compendium of feminist anthems and feisty classics – I Will Survive, These Boots Are Made for Walking, Tina Turner, Pat Benatar, some head-whipping grunge and hip-hop. It was piping through her Nashville house one chilly afternoon last month. Wood, the actress and musician, had just put herself through an emotional wringer: she testified before Congress, in unflinching terms, about being a survivor of sexual violence, then jetted to Los Angeles to perform songs by David Bowie, her musical idol, with his bandmates.

The trials and tribulations of the North Sea oil and gas sector have been well documented in recent years, but there is growing evidence of an upturn and in recent weeks we have seen the price of Brent crude oil nudging over $70 per barrel.

Many Scots basked in sunshine today, but sadly the warmth will not last.