Dearest Gentle Reader, this Tuesday brings a Prime Minister seeking common ground across the Atlantic, a Chancellor whose numbers are doing something deeply unpleasant, and a reform that may - or may not - finally save you from paying a king's ransom for your spaniel's prescription. This Author has opinions on all of it, and she has not spared the ink.

Dearest Gentle Reader, this Wednesday brings a government curfew that teenagers may instantly dismantle, a British couple in a Persian gaol whose ordeal grows more shocking by the hour, and a Kingdom so thoroughly baked by the sun that even the scandals feel warm to the touch. This Author has opinions on all of it - some arch, some grave, and at least one barely fit for polite society.

Dearest Gentle Reader, this Thursday brings economic prophecies dark enough to make one's teacup tremble, shadow ships lurking in the Channel, and a corporate resignation that speaks volumes - mostly in the language of shoes. This Author has studied the day's dispatches with great care, and she invites you to draw rather closer, for the news is not fit to shout across a ballroom.