Dearest Gentle Reader, This Author's column today concerns hidden fortunes, blank pages that set Westminster ablaze, and a stable door shut far too late to matter. One might think the Season's intrigues could not grow more delicious - one would be gravely mistaken. Do click through before someone less discreet reveals what you have missed.

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.

Dearest Gentle Reader, This Author's column today contains such a potent blend of political theatre, dark tidings from behind prison walls, and absurdity most magnificent that one risks social ruin simply by being uninformed of it. A Chancellor under siege, a Viscount parading his sums, and a death that has set every drawing room tongue wagging - you would be wise not to be the last to know.