Before anything else I thought I'd share with you an old piece of news which I'd hate to think you might have missed.

Greetings from sunny Stuttgart. Last night I had dinner with colleagues from the finance and M&A departments of Holtzbrinck. The 'controller' for Macmillan was there and here are his memories:

'Having had dinner in a typically Swabian Weinstube in down-town Stuttgart we were just about to leave. At that moment a very attractive, open-minded lady came to our table just having been eavesdropping our conversation. She introduced herself and conceded that she was listening to our talks for quite a while. She told us that she was looking for a British man to take her to the UK - and she made very clear that she knows what she wants: A British man, middle-aged, grey-haired, living in London and by the way, he should be wealthy. She seemed to be quite desperate. Last year she got to know a British man looking like Hugh Grant, living near Basingstoke. She found her presumed love for life via the online partner agency Parship - what are the odds? But in the end (after 4 weeks) it didn't work out.

Richard, the landlord of Parship UK, couldn't really bring himself to take her with him to London and to offer her a job (maybe as his new assistant?) and of course free living. So he made a deal with her: He promised her to get a three months' free access to Parship to find the right British man.

Will see what happens...for further report.'