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A few days later, Jonathan Wynne-Jones has another exclusive, this time on the workings of the Crown Nominations Committee which has put Jeffrey John on the first shortlist for Southwark. Of course I must follow this story up. But first I have to make tea for the Kew Cricket Club colts and then go to the German School Richmond for our son's Shotokan Karate green belt grading. I sit sweltering in the sports hall with the grunts and 'kaya's!' of kata and kumite filling the air while I fill my own head with Anglian politics and try to get mobile reception for the laptop and the phone to make the story work for me. Even the members of the CNC I manage to track down are polite in their refusals to break their vows of confidence. Everyone is so nice and helpful, an aspect of this job that I love. The story stands up and I get another page lead in that Mondays paper. Not quite as satisfying as the week before, when the Sunday Telegraph ran just one paragraph of another JWJ story and I got a page lead out of it the next day and everyone assumed it was my exclusive. But nice nonetheless. Thank you Jonathan, and may God bless you! Please keep the great stories coming for The Times! 

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Interpone tuis,interdum gaudia curis;
Ut possis animo quem vis sufferre laborem

'Mixe with thy Studies sometimes Recreation:
That so the spirits may have relaxation.' Cato