Dearest Gentle Reader, this Wednesday delivers a reckoning of the most uncomfortable sort - institutions found wanting, laws that reward the wrong party, and a queue so long it has quite defeated a generation of young drivers. There is also a comedian weeping rather gloriously on a stage, and a naturalist turning one hundred with more grace than the entire apparatus of government. Your humble Author has read every word so that you need not face it unprepared.

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.