Saturday morning, with the sun streaming — beep — through our kitchen window. I had finished — beep — my work for the week, and was settling down to read a new — beep — book. At first, I ignored the noise, thinking that — beep — by doing so, it would go away. But the more I ignored it, the more — BEEP! — insistent it became, so that I couldn’t read more than a couple of sentences before — BEEP! — it struck again, and then I would have to go back to the — BEEP! — beginning. Our tall house is fitted with four smoke detectors, one on each floor. These detectors are attached to the mains electricity, but each detector also has its own battery, so that if the electricity isn’t working, the battery will automatically kick in. At least twice a year, a fit of beeping comes from the four smoke alarms in Craig Brown's tall house warning they need a new battery But the manufacturers have left nothing to chance. When the battery runs low, the smoke detector goes ‘Beep!’ — and goes on beeping u