Besides, I was anxious to take the wheel, the man in pink pyjamas showing himself a hopeless duffer at the business.

OBLIVIOUS to his sterilisation, Judas the raccoon dog treks through Sweden’s countryside in search of a mate. At last he finds one, only for their liaison to end when she is shot. He trudges on and finds another, but she is killed too. This is his destiny: he is a radio-tagged lure leading hunters to the last live raccoon dogs in the country.

McCartan and I gave London a hasty goingover, had a calm Channel crossing, and parted company in Paris, when I went on towards Rome.

The Scot, who had been close to a two-set deficit in his semi-final against David Ferrer, avoided the dreaded bagel by seeing off a set point at 5-0 down before finally breaking the Djokovic serve to love as he began to go for his shots with the set seemingly gone.