Dearest Gentle Reader, this Friday has delivered electoral carnage of the most spectacular variety, a nautical health scare that even the most imaginative novelist could not have contrived, and the most joyous centenary this Author has had the privilege of recording. Pull up a chair, for the tea is already cold and the scandal is piping hot.

Dearest Gentle Reader, this Thursday brings a cruise ship plagued by pestilence, a constabulary once again called to account for sins of omission, and a gentleman of the digital salons who has invented a most creative new business model - one this Author suspects the magistrates will find equally creative. There is also, amid the shadows, a six-year-old boy who may be the finest soul in the Kingdom.