Off to Paris on Eurostar back on 9th August - we did the right bank last year, this year it's the left bank, so we're suddenly becoming intellectuals: reading Huis Clos in French, storming the offices of the Bourgeois classes and playing sax in a jazz band. Actually I do have a copy of Huis Clos in French because the owner of the small bookshop I used to frequent ordered me that version rather than the English one - obviously he mistook holiday stubble for a trendy goatee!

Hope that whatever you are doing this summer in the way of holidays (from Spain to Sunderland, County Durham to Surrey, Suffolk to Warwickshire and beyond these shores), that all my regular posters, viewers and readers have a great time. See you in August!