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 Saturday brings a collision of royal diplomacy, political catastrophe, and courtroom intrigue that would tax even the most seasoned observer of society's peculiarities. His Majesty the King is to be dispatched as an unlikely peace envoy to the most temperamental occupant the American Colonies have ever produced - and that is before we address the rather more domestic disasters closer to home. Steel yourself, for today's dispatches are not for the faint of heart.

Dearest Gentle Reader, this Saturday brings a deposed official, a prime minister with rather a lot to answer for, and a small furry creature who has made the entire apparatus of government look positively amateurish by comparison. Pull up a chair - today's dispatches are not to be missed.