So the next time someone asked me for a comment (on the doorstep this time), I said with a Mona Lisa smile that Sergei and I shared a love of nature that drew us together, and had been dear friends for years, but I was not at liberty to divulge details of his private affairs.

It was all in the paper next day, plus the immortal cliché, which I don’t remember saying: ‘When asked if she knew the identity of the woman in the photo, Ms Devino smiled and shook her head, then said her lips were sealed …’

Later Miracle phoned me up – the first time she’d actually spoken to me since she gave me my marching orders – and said I should carry on with the enigmatic smile stuff and plugging my books, and that not only had the Spring Breezes promotion in the Sun done my sales some good, all this new scandal-raking wouldn’t do me any harm either if handled the right way.

I wondered if she was having second thoughts about getting rid of me and would it soon be ‘come back, all is forgiven’?

I didn’t think I’d better give up my manuscript assessment service just yet, though!