This time last week I was on the Tube, gradually noticing how many people were carrying flowers. I was heading north, to Victoria, where people got out of the carriage with me and I realised these flowers were being carried to Buckingham Palace, to be laid against others by the gates and on the pavement. The afternoon before, there had been a rainbow over the roundabout. Further north, the Queen had died.

I’m not going to write about the Queen dying; many others, more qualified than me, have done so. But it’s an interesting thing, isn’t it, to go about life in a country where so many people are mourning a person they never met. I think many of us have been surprised by what form our feelings have taken; that’s not something to be taken lightly. Wherever you stand on it all, we should perhaps remember to be more careful with one another.

As part of that taking care I didn’t send this email last week. It seemed like a time of quietude. If you missed me, thank you for your patience. If you didn’t, well, here’s a bumper issue: things I’ve read, things I’ve enjoyed, things I’d like to share with you...