24th September 2017

A number of surprising firsts this week.
One of France's most celebrated chefs, Sebastien Bras, who runs the acclaimed Le Suquet restaurant in Laguiole near the Aveyron, announced on Wednesday that he wanted to be dropped from the rankings of France's gastronomic bible and lose his Michelin stars. Why? He'd had enough of the rat-race and wanted to concentrate purely on making good food. An Iraqi cleric praised the Jewish people for having emerged from the Holocaust following WWII and managed to win "the respect of the world through science", while Muslims he said are seen as having become "the world's headache." A major speech by Theresa May in Florence on Friday was actually praised and welcomed by the EU, and even by Boris Johnson. And for me, personally, my latest book became a 4 time international best seller - especially in Australia - a country which I've never visited. Surprising as the book's selling simply via word of mouth. Thank you everyone, but especially my unknown readers in Australia.