Dearest Gentle Reader, this Wednesday has delivered arsonists, a hospital's fatal silence, a crystal meth-collecting former Justice Minister, and a hero who embraced a bomber - all before Canterbury makes ecclesiastical history this very afternoon. This Author's constitution has been tested, her eyebrow raised to quite unprecedented heights, and her admiration for a certain nurse from Leeds knows no earthly bounds.

Dearest Gentle Reader, This Author has today encountered a footpath of preposterous length, designer hounds behaving most abominably, and a certain former ambassador whose correspondence grows ever more fascinating by the hour. One would not wish to miss a single word of what follows.

Dearest Gentle Reader, This Author's pen has been most busy this day, for the realm offers a banquet of follies - a Chancellor insisting all is well whilst the wheels fall from the carriage, a Secretary declaring war upon the very rollercoaster he rides, and a most intriguing audience at the Palace that has set tongues wagging on both sides of the Atlantic. One would hate for you to be the only person at tonight's supper without the particulars.