I glanced down at a fifty pence coin lying on the floor today and was struck by how remarkable an object it is. Quite unlike any Morrocan dirams, Slovenian tolars, Croatian kunas, Polish crowns or (heaven forbid) euros, it’s just quite British.

It’s good to be back.

Tomorrow I’m off up to Northampton where I shall be reunited with my computer and the USB lead for my camera which will allow me to download the gigabyte or so of photos that I managed to take whilst away (out of which I hope to be able to extract at least two good ones).