Dearest Gentle Reader, this Thursday brings a most extraordinary assortment of misfortunes - students dunned for loans they were encouraged to take, a shipping lane held to ransom by a most imperious neighbour, and a domestic situation involving two hundred and fifty dogs that this Author scarcely believes herself. The day's dispatches are, in equal measure, maddening, heartbreaking, and frankly unhinged - read on, if you dare.

Dearest Gentle Reader, Wednesday has arrived in a blaze of quite inappropriate sunshine, bearing with it a ceasefire, a collapsed housing market, and a crime against scouts that defies all decent comprehension. This Author has much to report, and not a moment to spare - the ton shall not rest easy this April evening.

Dearest Gentle Reader, Monday has delivered a most extraordinary haul of intrigue - a rapper whose visa may not survive the week, a government that giveth with one hand and reduceth with the other, and physicians who have once again declined to show up for work. This Author has observations on all of it, and they are not entirely printable in polite company.