Dearest Gentle Reader, this Thursday brings a state apology decades in the making, a convicted people smuggler discovered living most comfortably in Leicestershire, and a defence spending plan with a rather conspicuous hole in its pocket. This Author has notes - and, for once, not all of them are amusing.

Dearest Gentle Reader, this Saturday delivers a most peculiar mixture of the scorching, the scandalous, and the strangely poignant - including a royal reunion four years in the making, a record shattered for the third day running, and a castle full of sculptures that even their owner refuses to claim. This Author has opinions on all of it, and very little intention of keeping them to herself.

Dearest Gentle Reader, this Friday brings a monarch baring his tax bill to the nation, a government minister telling his superior to 'stay classy' from the digital salons, and forty hospital staff whose curiosity has proved rather more dangerous than their patient's reptilian assailant. This Author's lorgnette has been working quite the overtime - read on, if you dare.