Dearest Gentle Reader, this Thursday brings a Governor warning of gilded towers built upon speculation, a levy upon the vapours beloved of the young, and - amid the noise of policy and pageantry - the passing of a woman who changed this Kingdom quietly and permanently. This Author has words for all of it, and a raised eyebrow for most of it.

Dearest Gentle Reader, this Thursday brings a Palace rebuttal of such exquisite precision that this Author nearly applauded, a drug two years overdue that has arrived at last for a thousand women, and a stranger who read a plea on the digital salons and promptly donated a kidney - because why not. The day is grave, the day is warm, and the day is, in its way, rather remarkable.

Dearest Gentle Reader, This Author's Monday tea sits untouched, for today brings word of telephone diplomacies between two most powerful lords over a waterway that may yet determine the price of your supper, a desperate plea from a prison cell in a war zone, and the revelation that a simple family luncheon now costs more than a gentleman's wager at cards. All this, and a quarrel about moles that has set the nation quite ablaze.