We need to teach our children the value of risk

Politicians and journalists should be grateful to bankers. With their greedy, thoughtless and spendthrift ways, they’ve surely replaced hacks and MSPs as the least trusted professionals in Britain.

Last week, though, the money men encountered competition -- from personal injury lawyers warning schools to ban snowball fights or run the risk of litigation. This is ludicrous. You don’t have to be Miss Smilla to have feelings for snow. Danish writer, Peter Høeg wrote about the infinite variety of the white stuff in his 1992 classic novel and Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow hasn’t been out of print since. Partly because the heroine is a Nordic version of Indiana Jones - gutsy, impulsive, independent and (yet) female – and partly because her daily life, dreams, nightmares and the single event that shapes the novel are all experienced through the prism of snow.

The unbreakable Nordic connection with nature adds an extra dimension to daily life, national character and popular culture. And perhaps explains why – even in the land of Ian Rankin -- Scandinavian crime thrillers are apparently outselling native talent. Our Nordic cousins have a feeling for snow – and adventure too. To read more - click here.